The Undisputed
by Geralt
Summary: AU. Hidden security cams on Eden Prime's spaceport caught Saren's actions. Quick thinking saved the Beacon. Quick wit forced the Council to listen. Even the Thorian played ball. In the end, the small divergences were enough to prove the big truth: the Reapers were coming. And the evidence was Undisputed.
1. Chapter 1 - The N7 Dossier

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **FOREWORD / FAIR WARNING:**_

 _This story is an_ _ **AU**_ _focused on divergence on crucial points: Eden Prime, Feros, Noveria – all of those will be there, but their course and outcome will be different from canon. The_ _ **AU**_ _aspects will become more and more pronounced until it creates a whole new divergent line at the end of the ME1 story. The main cause for this divergence is my imagining of how things would have happened, and how would the events be changed if_ _ **Commander Shepard had worn a helm-mounted recording device**_ _through all his missions_ _– such as any decent special ops soldier already has in this day and age in the early 21_ _st_ _century. That, and the Council actually being smart and competent leaders, rather than idiotic posers throwing childish insults like they do in the games._

 _And finally, I have made this story feature two Commanders – male and female – and it focuses a lot on their already-existing relationship, with neither of them having specific combat class, and having a complex background. It might appear that I have placed more focus on Male Shepard (mainly because I felt a bit uncertain in my abilities to write good true female characters), but this story's ultimate goal will be to put a heavy accent on both of my Shepards._

 _I have focused a bit on tech and world-building, and a LOT on characters and their interactions, with plenty of combat thrown in between. A lot of details have been altered for the sake of accuracy of the chain of events. A lot of tech details had been tweaked for the sake of tech accuracy (trust me, I'm an engineer)._ _ **Also a fair warning on that part:**_ _this story_ _ **will**_ _feature a bit more tech stuff than what is average for other ME stories on this site, but I stand firm by it, and will not change that aspect of this story._

 _At the moment of this first chapter being posted, I have about 70-80k words written, and I wish to keep that buffer, so I'll be posting new chapters as I advance. Right now, my goal with this story stretches as far as the end of Mass Effect 1._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 14.11.2016.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – The N7 Dossier**

The room was silent, save for the shuffling of the datapads across the desk. The ambassador scrutinized the faces of the few men and a couple of women that were displayed on the translucent screens as he scanned their service data. He finally took a deep breath, and spoke:

"This is a difficult choice, Hackett," he said. "The way I see it, all of them have top-of-the-line scores: fit, able, served under distinguished officers… I don't understand why you say we shouldn't pick any of them!"

"I assure you, Ambassador, a better candidate exists," spoke the man in admiral's dress blues, his gravelly voice calm and steady, almost tired.

Ambassador raised a datapad, shaking it for emphasis.

"A better candidate than this?" he asked disbelievingly. "With a better service record than McNeal? The man took part in over a dozen covert operations, and he actually led operation Firegate. Besides, there is nothing that would put a spec of dirt on his record. This kind of man would be a perfect example of what humanity has to offer."

"No he wouldn't, and we both know it," the admiral retorted calmly. "Those few men and women you have there are all there because of political moves. I can understand that the Systems Alliance wants to look good for the sake of diplomacy, but Spectre ranks are not the place for poster boys. It will only make us look stupid. We need someone significantly more… deliberate."

Ambassador sighed just as the doors opened with a gentle hiss. The two men turned to look at the third invitee to the meeting.

"Glad you made it in time, Captain," spoke the admiral.

"Likewise, Admiral," the black man spoke, then looked at the ambassador and greeted him with a nod. "Ambassador Udina."

"Anderson," the ambassador greeted him back. "I understand that you're bringing us the seventh candidate.

"I do," the man said, as he sat down and produced a new datapad.

Udina picked up the pad and read the name out loud.

"Marcus Shepard," he said, then frowned. "Why does that name sound so familiar?"

"I'd be surprised if it didn't; he was on the news feeds more than once," Anderson responded.

Udina looked at him with a raised eyebrow, then looked back at the picture of the man on the datapad. Hard blue eyes and a stern piercing gaze challenged him back. Then, he remembered.

"The Butcher of Torfan," he spoke gravely.

"One of his nicknames, yes," Anderson spoke after a pause.

Udina dropped the datapad, leaning back into his seat and looking around the room, releasing a heavy sigh.

"I was a deputy ambassador back then. I don't need to tell you of the political shitstorm that I had to deal with when that thing happened."

Hackett spoke up, his voice steely:

"Don't pretend that what Shepard did on Torfan wasn't a major boon for the future diplomatic engagements, Ambassador. Yes, you had to clean up a shitstorm – as you so eloquently put it – for a few months, but you cannot deny that this infamousness was what made your job a lot easier in the long run. When was the last time anyone tried to strong-arm the Systems Alliance? We showed them that we can get the job done, no matter the cost. And it was all thanks to one man."

"Don't think I'm not aware of that, Admiral," Udina spoke with a resigned tone. "The thought that haunts me is what kind of shitstorms – and I do mean plural – will follow if this man is pushed for a Spectre candidacy, and is successful."

"I'm afraid it might be out of our hands, Ambassador," Anderson spoke, then tapped Shepard's datapad. "You see, the reason why Shepard was added so late was because a turian Spectre named Nihlus Kryik wanted to carefully examine Shepard's record first. When he was done, he put in no uncertain terms that he was giving his endorsement for Marcus Shepard being the best candidate."

Udina recoiled in surprise.

"A _turian_ put his name forth?" he asked disbelievingly. "How come I didn't know that?"

Anderson waved his hand in the negative. "The final word came only two hours ago. I flew over here immediately after."

Udina looked down at Shepard's file in stunned silence before he sighed.

"Well, if a Spectre wants him, then it would look bad for us to deny him… Well, what can you tell me about Shepard? If I'm going to advocate his candidacy to the Council, I need to know what to expect; that's what this meeting is all about, after all… So, don't spare the details! I've gone through the first few rows of data – I see he's Earthborn, but… no record of his family."

Anderson shook his head. "Doesn't have one. He was an orphan; raised himself on the streets of the Southwest Megalopolis – L.A., mostly."

"Well, his life must've been just peachy," Udina commented dryly.

Anderson snorted mirthlessly. "You could say that," he said. "It's all the more tragic since Marcus is a biotic – an exceptionally skilled one – and while we're certain he was exposed to eezo while he was in his mother's womb, we still have no idea how or where it could have happened."

"No idea on who the woman was?" Udina asked.

"None."

"Hmm… So, he lived on the streets," Udina remarked.

"Sort of," Anderson nodded. "The social care system did a bad job – bad foster parents, poor family, negligent – that sort of thing. He was officially in their care, but he would spend days with his gang – pickpocketing, theft, fighting with other gangs… usually against guys bigger and stronger than him. He learned to take care of himself."

Udina frowned at the data he read.

"That… doesn't make any sense," he said and pointed at the datapad. "Says here his elementary and high school average grades were not that bad. His average was 9.15. I'd expect him to be a dropout."

"Many would," Anderson said. "But Marcus has an IQ of 169. The school was like a vacation to him."

That brought Udina's attention. "A hundred and sixty-nine?! That's beyond impressive, if I may say so! How could a boy like that be left among the street gangs?"

Anderson spread his hands helplessly.

"Like I said – bad system. Nothing anyone could have done about it then. But the point is that we're not dealing with a mere grunt, Ambassador; we have ourselves a man that knows exactly when and how to strike."

"I'll say. So, what changed? Something must've happened to steer him away from a life of a hoodlum."

"Something did happen. When he was fifteen, his gang found itself smack in the middle of L.A. Terror of '69, when religious terrorists besieged the city. He fought that hell for three days to survive. That particular thing was the turning point."

"Jesus," Udina muttered, then spoke after a few moments of silence. "He used guns, didn't he? That is what you're trying to say between the lines."

"Speaking candidly? Yes, he did use guns. You can't hold it against him, Ambassador; he was just a kid trying to survive the utter chaos."

"No, I understand that, but I need to know two things: first off – for a kid that used guns, has he grown into a stable man? And two – is this is buried deep enough? Can it come back to bite us?"

Hackett spoke, leaning forward against the desk and lacing his fingers:

"As for the first question, I can vouch for that. Not because of some personal experience, but because our psychologists, the _experts_ , are the ones that cleared him. And they do not allow mishaps. Not in this line of work."

Anderson picked up from there:

"As for the second question – there is nothing to bury, Ambassador. He was never arrested. The L.A. Terror was an utter chaos, and the law enforcement and military had bigger priorities than chasing kids down. They didn't so much as sniff his way. No, this story comes from Marcus himself. There was a moment early in his active career when the circumstances were such that they demanded for him to come clean to me of all people, and so he did. The fact that he truly lived there at the time, that he _was_ in the gang, and that I could _see_ it in him – that he had that air about him says enough. The fact that he hid these facts as a means to leave them behind him is not something I'd hold against any man."

"I see," Udina said as he looked down at the datapad, then frowned. "It says here he left Earth a couple of weeks later on his own. Where did he get the money?"

"He _was_ a petty thief, Ambassador," Anderson half smiled. "He did save a bit of his loot."

"Hmm. Makes sense," Udina conceded. "What planet did he go to?"

Anderson spoke after a pause, "Mindoir."

Udina smacked his palm against the tabletop.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire!" he said.

Anderson just nodded gravely and continued:

"Before he went there, he did tests for finishing high school early, and he emancipated himself; he was legally an adult at the moment he landed on Mindoir. The colonies have looser age regulations, so he took a job at the spaceport. Worked as a grease monkey, tinkering with ship maintenance, mechanics, electronics – you name it, he did it… Until the batarians came."

"Obviously… And how did that turn out?"

"Killed a dozen slavers."

"Where did he get the gun this time?" Udina asked grimly.

"From the batarians themselves. He ambushed the first one with his biotics and finished him off with the batarian's own combat knife. Once he got his hands on a rifle, he went on a killing spree. His claim at the time was that he was pissed about how trouble always seemed to find him and the people he cared about. He had a girlfriend there on Mindoir, you see."

"A noble cause, but still sounds like a major temper issue to me," said Udina.

"On the contrary," Hackett took the opportunity to speak. "Shepard is incredibly calm under duress. Sure, he has a lot of anger in himself, but I assure you that it stems from his strong sense of justice. However, I have never seen him lose his temper. Not once. And once you hear the rest of the story, you'll understand why it's so important."

Anderson continued:

"Unlike other Mindoir survivor kids, Shepard was legally emancipated at the time, so instead of going to the foster care system, he just went back to work. But here's the thing: that girlfriend I mentioned that he had on Mindoir? He took her with him."

Udina frowned. "Why is that so important?"

"Because Shepard has charisma unlike few other people I've known," Anderson replied. "He leads. He influences. He actually influenced that girl to become emancipated herself – a feat she did with no problem – and then he took her with him so they could work together on that freighter. Maybe it sounds romantic, but that's not the reason I'm saying this, but because he essentially took care of another human even back then, and he did it successfully. Marcus is not just a cold-blooded killer, Ambassador. He is a leader and a provider."

"Fair enough," Udina acquiesced. "Go on."

"The two of them had spent the next two years drifting about the Exodus Cluster as crew aboard a space freighter. After he turned eighteen, he enlisted together with her, and after basic both of them applied for the N7 training straight off the bat."

"Hmm, interesting," Udina said with raised eyebrows. "That's a lofty goal. The way I hear it, most are happy to even be considered for the N1, and I know that there are a lot of rumors that are actually meant to put the fright into potential N7 applicants – to weed out those of weak spirit."

"Yet, he did it nonetheless," Anderson replied. "It was obvious in Shepard's case that he was one of the best that we had. When he got to the N7 training, he broke almost every record for every track and aptitude test that were placed before him. He graduated at the top of his class, got his officer's insignia, and was sent off to active duty. What followed was typical for an N7 – operations throughout the Skyllian Verge, the Traverse and the Terminus; raids against pirates, assassinations, rescue operations…"

"Yes, I see his record is significant," Udina mused out loud. "Ah yes, here we are. Elysium, 2176."

"Yes, can you imagine it?" Anderson laughed mirthlessly. "His first real and extended shore leave in a while, and it so happens that he finds himself in the middle of the Skyllian Blitz. So, there he was, almost alone and in civilian clothing, fending off wave after wave of batarian, krogan, and even turian slavers."

"The Hero of the Skyllian Blitz," Udina spoke solemnly. "The Lion of Elysium. The newscasts loved him! To fight off all of those slavers… No wonder that that kind of man would survive a thresher maw on Akuze a year later," he said, tapping the paragraph in question with his finger.

"Haaahhh… that was one damn clusterfuck alright," Anderson rumbled, shaking his head.

"What's the story behind that again?" Udina asked. "The colony went dark, and marines were sent to investigate?"

"Yes. He was attached to that marine company," Anderson said. "The thresher maw attacked them almost as soon as they had established forward base. Shuttles weren't near. The thresher maw went after everyone. Shepard tried to draw the beast toward him as the marines retreated toward the LZ, but that was our first encounter with the species; we didn't know that it would be drawn to tremors in the ground. As the marines ran, the thresher maw followed the pounding of their feet and ignored the single man that was trying to shoot it. It didn't notice Shepard until it killed all of the marines. He used his biotics to dodge thresher acid spikes and kept launching concussive shots from his rifle at it as he retreated. He managed to drive it off, but in the end, he was the sole survivor."

"He must have had a great desire to live," Udina commented. "Still, losing that many men must've left some psychological scars, no?"

"His psyche eval was in the clear," Hackett said. "Psychologists were sure that this event would not have left many emotional problems other than a basic shellshock; Shepard went through that one on the spot, otherwise he wouldn't have lived. It's never easy to see people get brutally killed, but as an N7, Shepard was just a temporary add-on to the unit. He didn't have enough time to establish deeper connections with other men, so their deaths didn't strike him as hard as one would think. He wouldn't have any emotional scars from that."

"Then how do you explain what happened on Torfan?" Udina prodded.

"Torfan was a completely different situation," Anderson tried to clarify. "Let's get something clear first: Shepard did a number of missions before the retaliation for the Blitz was underway, all of them successful, so the problem was not with him. The problem that happened was a very situational occurrence to that point in time. See, Shepard had a wholly separate special-ops mission on Torfan with a small squad of his own. They accomplished their mission, but the end objective had placed them within earshot of the 107th marine company that was under Major Daryl Kyle."

Hackett picked up from there:

"Turned out that Kyle was a very bad choice for the mission he was supposed to do," he said. "The man didn't have it in him. Before the day was done, the man had a nervous breakdown, and then-Lieutenant Shepard had taken initiative and took over the leadership of the 107th. There was no other choice, really; other platoon leaders were either dead or woefully under-qualified."

"Unfortunately, he was an N7," Anderson said, "which means that leading anything larger than a platoon was not meant to be part of their skillset – thirty or forty men tops if the conditions are right – yet, there he was, having a crash course in leading over a hundred and fifty men through hell."

"Says here he got most of them killed," Udina spoke sourly.

"That's because he expected them to fight like an N7 would," Hackett said. "He learned the hard way that not everyone's cut out for it, but the good thing is that he did learn it, no matter how grim that sounds; few officers ever get that kind of education. Because of Torfan, I'd be more comfortable in placing men under Shepard's command than any other men of commander-equivalent rank out there."

"And he got the job done!" Anderson added. "He knew the score: it was to either lose most of his men or lose _all_ of his men. All things considered, I think he performed admirably; few men would have been able to."

"Yes, but that doesn't justify what he did after he broke through into the enemy fortress," Udina said heatedly. "Killing surrendering batarians? Executing them in cold blood? Is that the kind of person we want protecting the Galaxy?!"

Anderson slapped the desk angrily.

"You know as well as anyone of what would have happened if we just captured those slavers, Ambassador," he said. "They would have walked sooner or later, one way or the other, and they would have immediately returned to pillaging human settlements! Shepard made sure that they wouldn't ever again. You ask me whether he's the kind of person we want to protect the Galaxy? Well, that's the only kind of person that _can_ protect the Galaxy – the one that has the foresight and stomach to do what needs to be done!"

Udina huffed air through his nose in annoyance but remained silent. He spoke softly:

"I understand fully what you're saying, Anderson, and the implications of it, but I don't like it."

Hackett leaned forward, cupping his fist.

"You're afraid of the political backlash, aren't you," he said knowingly.

Udina didn't say anything. Hackett nodded in understanding, nonetheless.

"Then, let me remind you how it was depicted in the media, Ambassador: "Hero of the Skyllian Blitz exerts righteous vengeance" – those are the exact words they used. Humans all over the Galaxy didn't view him as a monster; they viewed him as a dispenser of justice."

"Ruthless he may be, but he's a hero in the eyes of humanity," Anderson added. "Humanity needs a hero, and Shepard's the best we've got."

"I can understand that you are worried about political backfiring and media storm that might cover this, Ambassador," Hackett said. "But you must remember that the media can make the worst of crimes seem heroic, while the most selfless deeds to appear as monstrous. It falls to someone like you to make sure it happens in the way it benefits the Systems Alliance."

Udina sighed heavily.

"Maybe," he said. "But can you blame me for wanting to make my job easier?"

"No, Ambassador, I cannot blame you; but 'easy job' is a kind of luxury that men like us have forfeited once we took the jobs we have now."

"Yes, I suppose you're right, Admiral… as always," Udina added with a mock grunginess, then turned to Anderson. "Shepard's posted on your ship, Anderson, isn't he? As an Executive Officer?"

"No," Anderson waved off. "That particular person you're talking about is Commander _Jaina_ Shepard. She's Marcus's wife."

"Really?!" Udina exclaimed in bewilderment, then looked at Marcus's record under the label of 'marital status' and raised his eyebrows. "I had no idea he was married!"

"Few people do," Anderson said, then smirked. "Remember that girlfriend of his from Mindoir? The one that enlisted with him?" He then wordlessly pointed his finger to the datapad Udina held, looking smug.

"That's her?" Udina asked with his eyebrows trying to reach his hairline. "Then… why is the fact of his marital status marked as "class 3" of being classified?!"

"Jaina Shepard was purposefully omitted from a lot of reports that included Marcus because she's an N7 as well," Anderson said, then turned somber. "Keeping those kinds of soldiers in the shadows is an important thing. Their anonymity is a weapon. We couldn't keep Marcus out of the media after Elysium, but we managed to hide her. She was with him on that shore leave on Elysium in 2176, you know."

"Really?" Udina repeated once more.

"Of course," Anderson replied in a 'naturally' way. "It was their marital spring break. It was both of them that day on the ramparts, defending the colonists, side-by-side. Jaina was there with Marcus from the very start of it all. From the ashes of Mindoir, living and working together on that civilian freighter, and then enlisted together with him. Something like that goes far deeper than mere flair, if I may say so."

"I see," Udina commented somberly, looking down at the picture of the N7 agent for a few silent moments. "I need to know if this will be a problem for his candidacy, though."

"No," Hackett said. "Spectres have spouses; it's a perfectly natural thing. Nihlus Kryik knows this, and he had in fact deliberated whether it should be Marcus Shepard or Jaina Shepard to be his recommendation. As far as I'm concerned, it would have been fine either way; but for whatever reason, he chose Marcus."

Udina took a final glance at the record, then nodded, and said:

"I'll make the call."

The other two men nodded.

"Before we're finished, though, there's the question of the new vessel," Udina pointed out, leaning forward.

Hackett nodded. "The SSV Normandy – Stealth Recon One."

"I know that the fact of its construction was somewhat non-classified," Udina said. "But everything else was very much on a need to know basis. With that ship now ready to leave the shipyard in mere days, I wonder if it'd be possible for you to declassify some information about it."

Hackett nodded. "I think the basics would be safe."

Anderson nodded to that, and activated his omni-tool, bringing up the sleek, aircraft-styled frigate to view.

"The Normandy," Anderson declared. "155 meters long, 60 meters wide at its engine nacelles, and 29 meters tall from its lowest point up to the tip of its comm/sensor array."

"Not as big as our standard frigates," Udina commented skeptically.

"Yet, its eezo core is the size of a cruiser," Anderson pointed out. "That means its barriers are just as powerful, and it makes its main gun also far more powerful than an average frigate's, despite the being a bit shorter in length."

"Fair enough… what about its internal layout?"

"Four decks," Anderson replied, highlighting the sections on the projection. "Topmost is the command deck; that's where the helm, the systems operations, and the CIC are. They take up the forward half of the upper deck. The rear part of the deck holds the dual purpose comm and debriefing room, and behind that is the VI core.

"Next is the crew deck, one deck below. The front section contains crew quarters at the front-most part, arrayed on either side of the length of the central hallway. The crew "rooms" hold four bunks and lockers each, and nothing else. They are small in that regard, true, but the Normandy doesn't have a big total crew complement, so it's very manageable. Aft of the crew bunking section are the showers – one for each of the genders.

"After this, the section flares into general crew deck. This is where the larger captain's quarters to the port side and the medical bay with the adjacent lab to the starboard are, taking space just aft of the showers. As for the med bay lab, we suspect that it won't have much practical use, but it was incorporated nonetheless because of certain STG experiences we've picked up in that regard. We'll just have to see how it goes.

"As for the crew general area that follows, that section functions as a mess hall on the starboard side, and crew relaxation area at the port side – each of these sides elongated due to the ship's design, obviously. Aft of this area there are two small observation rooms on either side of the deck – just a small relaxation area, nothing more.

"Further back from the observation rooms is a large service elevator that connects with the lower two decks, and a twin set of stairs after that connect the crew deck with the CIC. Behind this section is a space to the rearmost of the ship, where the majority of ship's fuel is stored at.

"The third deck is the _combat deck_. This is where the majority of the Normandy's weapons are serviced at."

"What are we talking about here?" Udina asked. "I know it has a main gun…?"

"Yes, the main gun runs the length of this deck, straight down the middle of it. It is also where one set of missile launcher tubes is located at. The Normandy has a total of sixteen missile launcher tubes. There are four on each side of its central body, pointing outwards and angled slightly forward – there – and there are additional four launcher tubes on each of its wings, pointing directly forwards. "

"That's a lot of launchers," Udina commented. "And I find it strange that all are made to point forward. If I'm not mistaken, Alamo class has only a total of twelve – eight forward and four pointed backward. Strange that the Normandy doesn't have any launchers pointing backward for defense."

Anderson raised his hand and shook his head in the negative.

"The Normandy is meant to be an assault ship, Ambassador," he said. "That's the whole point of being stealth. That's the reason why it doesn't have any secondary guns or broadsides like the Alamo does – it was never meant to exchange fire in prolonged bouts. And, as a stealth assault ship, its job is to sneak in and concentrate all of its firepower to one decisive strike with as many gun rounds and missiles it can."

"Hmm… makes sense," Udina admitted. "I assume it's javelin missiles that it's designed to launch?"

"Javelin Mk-2," Anderson said, nodding. "The same type like the ones on the fighter-bombers. It also has several Wasp Barrage Missile honeycombs – a set of small air-to-surface bombardment missiles packed like a honeycomb inside a disposable javelin-sized tube. This is for those scenarios when the ship needs to perform any kind of suppressive bombardment actions."

"Yes, I've seen those missiles in action," Udina commented. "Very destructive against infantry and AFV clusters. Hmm… and what about its defenses?"

"Like I said, its kinetic barriers are on par with those of a cruiser due to its eezo core size," Anderson continued. "Its armor is pretty much standard – no new secret formulae there – just a standard double layer of frigate plating. It has eight GARDIAN laser turrets, though – four along the front of its wings, and additional four at the rear of its central body."

"Alright, so what about the fourth deck?" Udina prompted.

Anderson highlighted the lowest area of the ship.

"The fourth is the smallest deck," he said. "This is where cargo bay and engineering are. As for the cargo bay, it also serves as a garage for two Mako IFVs, although it _can_ fit four in an emergency. The cargo bay also has weapons armory, a heavy fabricator unit that serves the needs of the engineering, as well as a few smaller fabricators – meant for crafting and repairing weapons and armor. Now, to the rear of this is the engineering that houses the reactor, the eezo core, and the signature Internal Emission Sink system."

"The principle had been explained to me before," Udina said, nodding. "But where is the heat being stored?"

"Right here, in these sections," Anderson said, highlighting sections inside hull plating and along engine nacelles. "The IES system has enough capacity to run silently for three hours with all its systems – sublight engines and barriers, and so forth – running at full power before it needs to vent heat. After that, the stored heat will start to fill the crew areas, becoming unbearable within minutes, and deadly in less than twenty. If at a drift, though, its engines silent, the Normandy can stalk a system for days.

"And also, it is this core that makes the Normandy the fastest ship out there. While other warships can traverse twelve to fifteen light years per day depending on their weight class, the Normandy can traverse twenty."

Udina nodded.

"Impressive. I was never in the army, but even I can understand the benefits of a silent kill."

"That is correct," Hackett spoke up, leaning forward. "If this ship proves successful in what we intend it to do, more and more ships like that will be seen. This will herald a new age of warfare."

"Let's just hope that the Gods of War are on our side when it comes," Anderson said somberly.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Covert Mission

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **Chapter posted on 13.11.2016.**_

 _Additional proofing and grammar corrections made on_ _ **1.7.2017.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for adult themes and their graphic depictions._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

 **Chapter 2 – The Covert Mission**

He sat at a workbench in the armory section of the ship's cargo bay.

His discerning eyes were closely examining the part of a disassembled automatic combat pistol in his hand, spotting the myriad of small structural imperfections that had appeared on it. Fractures. Blisters.

He rumbled in annoyance as he dropped the part back onto the tabletop and took a deep breath as he thought on what to do.

The entire damn mass effect array of the gun was badly worn. And it was the most critical part of a gun. The set of robust coils and capacitors in question that surrounded the bore rails on both sides needed to endure huge pulses of dark energy and electricity that it projected down the gun rails when it fired. It _needed_ to be the most durable.

And yet, someone in Hahne-Kedar production management had decided that the poor-quality materials were okay for military-grade weapons.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead as he exhaled, releasing the unwanted irritation; he knew all too well wouldn't do him any good. This problem was the one all heavily-modified weapons had: the stock components tended to be overworked after a very short while. His own pair of automatic pistols suffered the same problem. He would have to fabricate a custom part under his own specs if he wanted to resolve the issue completely, but he hadn't had the time. Until then, a fresh stock part would have to do.

He reached out to the side and grabbed a new mass effect array he had prepared, flipping it around in his hand as he examined the quality that could be considered stock at best.

"Hahne-Kedar," he rumbled disapprovingly, shaking his head at the part. "Well… at least it's not as bad as the batarian tech."

"Having problems with the guns, Commander?" a voice came from the side.

An officer in BDUs had walked up to the workbench a bit to the side of Marcus, laying a datapad and activating the small fabricator unit that lied on the tabletop.

Marcus glanced at the man from the corner of his eye before he returned it to the part in his hand.

"Just marveling at the pathetic quality of our stock weapons and gear, Chief," he said, frowning disapprovingly at the part before he proceeded to slide it into place around the gun rails and beginning to reassemble his gun.

"Well, that's corporate lobby for ya," Chief Engineer Adams replied as he let the fabricator warm up while he reexamined some specs on the datapad. "You know how the story goes – some corporate jock pays a lot of money to a political backer, then that political head convinces the government and the brass that that firm is the best there is."

"Glory of the capitalist lobby," Marcus rumbled sarcastically.

"Well, that's why we tend to build our own gear," Adams said simply.

"Maybe… but I'd still love to see some quality gear begin to be handed around for a change," Marcus said.

"That so?" the man asked, raising his eyebrow. "You know, Commander, we have met only recently, but our XO has mentioned you a few times during our downtime. Quoting her, she claims you are a real uh… grease monkey – if you don't mind me saying."

"And proud of it," Marcus stated solidly as he went on to disassemble the other gun. "Having the gear of better quality doesn't mean that I'd stop modifying it for the better, Chief, it's just that the Systems Alliance military would be considered less of an embarrassment."

"We're not that bad," Adams countered as he began working the fabricator. "Our cruisers and frigates are top-notch, and our carriers carry the fight."

"I was talking about grunt gear," Marcus retorted. "Lancers and Avenger snipers? Aldrin and Sirta armors? Having those suppliers leads to things like _this_ ," he said pointedly, grabbing and shaking the worn-out mass effect array, before tossing it to the other man.

Adams caught the part deftly, examining it in his expert eye, and he frowned, narrowing his eyes.

"This array looks like it fired ten thousand rounds non-stop," he said, grimacing.

"Only about four hundred," Marcus replied, shaking his head as he returned to his work. "Modded weapons, remember?"

"Well, I sure would like to see what mods you've made for them to cause _this_ ," Adams replied, pointing to the array for emphasis. "You wouldn't mind letting me have a look at your handiwork sometime, would ya?"

"I'll show them to you in a bit," Marcus said absentmindedly, his eyes, hands, and fingers still firmly on the weapon in his hands. "Everything is in the locker," he said, motioning with his head sideways.

"Appreciate it," Adams replied as he grabbed the now-fabricated part from the unit and examined it.

"Well, I suppose you're right when you say that the Alliance ground troops are poorly equipped," Adams continued. "Our doctrine wants the battles won before the enemy even lands on the planet's surface. Our frigates and cruisers are twice as heavier than their Turian counterparts, and our numbers are increasing. We've overtaken batarians a decade ago, and are slowly overtaking salarians now as well. And we have far more carriers than any one of them."

He paused and swept his gaze all around.

"And then, there's _this_ ," he said, motioning up and around.

Marcus followed his gaze, nodding in understanding.

"You may be right when it comes to ground forces, Commander, – but, this ship?" He shook his head slowly. "This ship is something else entirely. I've served on every class of warship in the Alliance fleet, and not a single one of them could hold a candle to the Normandy."

"I've noticed," Marcus replied, then leaned forward with his elbows against the desktop and cupping his fist in front of his face. "Still doesn't cover the fact that this whole mission to Eden Prime reeks up to high heaven, though," he added with a shake of his head.

Adams chuckled.

"You know, Presley up in the CIC said something was wrong too," he said, shaking his head. "He gave me a call a bit earlier to talk about it, saying that he had a gut feeling about it. I tried to downplay it for his sake; I was afraid the poor guy was gonna give himself an ulcer."

"Well, he's not wrong, that's for sure," Marcus said.

"You think so?"

Marcus spread his hands as if pointing to the obvious.

"This mission is riddled with so many discrepancies and deviations that it's absurd to think this is anything but a shadow operation," he said matter-of-factly.

Adams frowned. "To what?"

"Not sure yet," Marcus said. "The clues are all over the place, though. We have ourselves a brand new stealth ship, first of its class, on its supposed shakedown cruise and being sent to perform its initial space trials. So, being an engineer, you tell me what's wrong with this whole picture."

Adams kept his shrewd gaze on Marcus, thinking carefully on the matter before he finally nodded.

"I think I see what you may be getting at," he said. "A brand new ship's shakedown needs to be a set of trials to determine that all systems work in the first place. And being the first of its class means that it has to have a series of space trials after that – to push its systems to redline to see how hard and fast they can go. And none of these two mission types are supposed to have a timetable."

Marcus pointed toward him with an upturned palm. "There you have it," he said, looking at him sideways. "No timetable, yet we're burning hard toward Exodus Cluster, carrying an extra N7 operative other than your XO, a squad of N2 marines, and a Council Spectre. A simple systems test run? I don't think so."

"They say Nihlus Kryik is here to protect the Council investment," Adams said, making a doubtful grimace.

"You don't send a Spectre to babysit a shakedown run, Adams – period," Marcus stated calmly. "This is a shadow op that has his name written all over it."

"And, do you have an idea as to what is going on?" Adams asked.

"Only that something happened on Eden Prime," Marcus said matter-of-factly. "The key to all of this is finding out the reason behind going to our destination. Why Eden Prime?"

Adams looked dubious. "Why would anyone want to have anything with an agrarian world?" he wondered. "All you'd see is a virgin world with pretty beaches, mountains, and farmlands and pastures as far as the eye can see."

Marcus shrugged. "And a few Prothean ruins here or there," he said.

"Yeah, and there were some rumors that they've discovered some of those recently near the…" he suddenly trailed off, and then turned his eyes sharply at Marcus, just looking at him silently for a moment. "Well, I'll be…" he spoke slowly. "They've found something!"

Marcus spread his hands from where he leaned against the desk.

"Of course they did," he said naturally. "Whatever it is, it's big, and the Citadel wants it bad – bad enough to warrant a completely covert pickup with a vessel that's barely off of the scaffolds. They don't even want anyone to know that this package has left Eden Prime, and considering Exodus is linked to Kite's Nest via a primary relay pair, I think it's a smart choice."

"Well, Eden Prime has a flotilla of defense ships and a ring of mobile ODP-s," Adams said. "You really think the batarians would attack if they knew this Prothean artifact – or whatever it is – is on Eden Prime?"

"Somebody is pretty scared that they would," Marcus said, then pushed off from the desk, standing up and walking toward his lockers, taking his pistols with him. "Which means that there's a real potential for things to go bad in seconds, and if that's the case, then that's my cue to gear up." He turned to look at Adams over his shoulder, motioning him with his head to follow. "Come on. You wanted to see my battle gear – now's your chance."

Adams followed him slowly to the row of lockers, then leaned with one hand against one of them and the other against his hip as he contemplated Marcus's words.

"Well… damn, Commander," he said, twisting his head. "All that you said really does put everything into perspective."

"Just about," Marcus said as he opened his battle gear locker and began quickly undressing out of his BDUs to mount up in his suit of armor. "Now the only remaining question is what the package is."

Adams grunted. "Quite." He then diverted his attention at Marcus's gear as he began pulling it out of the locker. "Well, I'll be… is that the new line of N7 armor?"

"It is," Marcus said, letting Adams take a look as he worked. "Not that old Onyx-class crap from Aldrin Labs."

"Last I heard, it's a still experimental – an extremely high-end, high-quality stuff, but it's supposed to be issued to all N7-s by the end of the year. How'd you come by it so soon?"

"I convinced them that the suit needed a shakedown run," Marcus deadpanned. "Both male and the female version. Guess who's wearing the other type."

As Adams laughed out loud, Marcus began to suit up with swift efficiency.

Adams took note of the differences between the old and the new armor type right from the start. Unlike the older and more cumbersome hardsuit types made from several sections, the new powered suit seemed to be made as a far more advanced muscle-looking nano-weave one piece, thick but flexible, meant to provide a muscle-type servo enhancement, as well as high-grade bullet impact shock dissipation.

The inside of the suit held a separate nano-tech weave that tightened against the skin like a thin layer, forming a skintight environmental seal, as well as providing sensory input, body status readouts and injecting of medigel.

Last of all, the outermost layer of the battle suit was the heavy external plating divided into sections which Marcus mounted one at a time, the process swift and easy as each section clicked into place over the flex armor suit and sealing tight into a full armor.

The suit's design enabled him to be fully armored-up in under a minute.

"Damn," Adams said as he examined the suit of powered armor. "That armor is a far cry from the current generation of hardsuits, I tell you that."

"A fact for which I am grateful," Marcus said empathically as he adjusted it down. Painted in standard N7 black and gray, with a red-white stripe down the arm, it finally was something anyone could say both looked and worked the part of fighters that needed to go into the thickest of it and intimidate the enemy with their very presence.

"Have you had the time to put some modifications of your own into it?" Adams asked.

"Not nearly as much as I'd like," Marcus said, as he flicked his heavy-duty omni-tool fabrication unit on his wrist, going through the settings and optimizing certain things. "I've tweaked the generator output and capacitors quite a bit. It burns through the fusion plant reserves, but I don't feel sorry for it; when you can power-sprint for ten minutes, and your shields are hardened by eighty percent, you tend to disregard the fuel consumption for obvious reasons. And I've placed a redundant shield generator as well." He tapped the section at the front of his waist belt. "Not nearly as powerful, but it will keep me alive if my mains fail."

"You're not afraid that the overpowered mass effect will fry the shield emitters?"

"No. I did the math, and then tested it out," Marcus replied as he took his two automatic combat pistols and holstered them both into a smart carry – holsters tucked into the front of his waist belt. "The armor powergrid holds admirably. Trust me – I've already blown up myself once before when I tried this on Onyx model; I'm not eager to do it again. Makes a hell of a lot of paperwork."

Adams laughed. "Funny it's the paperwork you're most annoyed with in that entire matter."

"Trust me, having things blow up around me is the thing I can cope with," Marcus said dryly as he took out a heavy pistol and placed it into a holster in the middle of his chest, and then finished by taking out his battle rifle out of the locker, and showing it to Adams.

"See this thing for example?" he asked, motioning with his head to the weapon. "This thing has blown up in my face several times over the history of me modifying it."

He tossed the rifle to Adams, and the man caught it deftly in his hands before he took a long, measuring look to it.

"An M-96 Mattock?" Adams said, pleasantly surprised. "Don't see many soldiers using a battle rifle like this."

"It is far better designed than the M-7," Marcus said. "I don't know what idiot designed the Lancer, but the very fact that its bore is so elevated above its point of rest on the shoulder means the weapon kicks up like it wants to fly away."

"Well, it's no secret that the Mattock is far more stable, accurate, and with a far more powerful kick, but it takes time for an ordinary grunt to master it," Adams pointed out as he kept his eyes on the weapon. "So, tell me, what have you done with this one? Is it just me, or does it seems to be a bit on the heavy side?"

"You're right," Marcus said, taking the weapon from him and pointing out several things. "I've designed a five times larger core; took me a long time to procure eezo for it, but it's worth it. It not only punches harder, but it enabled me to place inertial dampening arrays, and I use the mass effect fields to drain the heat from the bore and divert it into the heat sink. I've essentially supercharged the cooling system beyond any gun out there."

"Huh, imagine that. It's similar in its functioning like our Normandy's IES, except that this pumps the heat _out_. Why'd you need such enormous amount of heat dissipation?"

"Because I've rigged it to fire full auto," Marcus said. "It uses high-explosive rounds, further incited by a mass effect oscillator in the chamber. And I've added a phased energy pump over the bore, here."

"Pushing the rounds into a phasic envelope and making them ignore enemy's shields to an extent," Adams concluded, nodding appreciatively. "A very destructive weapon, that's for sure. Expensive, too."

"I don't care for money; I care for effects," Marcus stated simply as he held the rifle in one hand, and then reached back into the locker with the other, retrieving a couple of objects that looked like Mattock's forward handgrips with integrated heat sinks, and attaching them to a magnetic plate at his side.

Adams frowned in confusion. "What are those additional Mattock's grips and heat sinks for, Commander?" he asked.

Instead of answering, Marcus reached up with his left hand and detached the Mattock's forward handgrip section in a swift and simple manner before tossing it to Adams. The engineer caught the object and looked it over.

"A detachable heat sink system?" he said in surprise.

"If you're in the heat of battle, and the system cannot compensate, just switch the entire heat sink," Marcus said as he grabbed one of the spare ones and clicked them into their place on the Mattock. "And then keep firing while the old one is clipped to your side or thigh magnet to cool off," he finished as he took the original heat sink section from Adams and let stick it onto the magnetic plate to his side where the first one was. "Combat suits are made of carbon-ceramite composites, so they're pretty damn resistant to heat; no worries of a hot heat sink damaging it."

"You really thought of everything, hadn't you?" Adams said, crossing his arms. "Ever thought about signing into Alliance-sponsored weapon inventor competitions? It'd be some pretty good money if you won."

"Never really gave it much thought," Marcus said as he holstered the weapon to his back. "Can't really imagine myself among all those corporate jocks."

"Well, you never know," Adams said. "Mikhail Kalashnikov was a tank commander in Russian Army in WW2 before he designed the AK-47."

Marcus chuckled. "We'll see," he said, then looked at the time on his omni-tool. "I should go. We'll be reaching the Arcturus-Exodus primary within a few minutes. My guess is that whatever's going on – we'll soon find out."

"Good point," Adams said, unfolding his arms, grabbing the part he had fabricated a minute ago, and walked back toward the engineering. "I'll see you around, Commander."

Marcus took out the final piece of his armor – a helmet with a full protective face plate that only had a pair of round 'eyeholes' of electronic multi-spectrum lenses – and hooked it onto his side where it didn't hinder his movements, and then walked to the elevator that led out of the cargo hold.

As he stepped in, he thought back on his suspicions pertaining to the mission at hand. It was obvious this was a covert pickup for something on Eden Prime that the Council was abnormally interested in, which was why they'd sent a Spectre.

So, that was not the big question. The big question was: what was his role in all of this?

He moved through the crew deck with purpose, swiftly climbing up to the CIC and walking in to see a place abuzz with activity. He cast a sweeping gaze across the room, noting people on their working posts, heads down, professional concentration on their faces, their postures radiating subdued excitement.

He still couldn't quite wrap his head around the new CIC layout. This modified turian design looked oddly advanced and ahead of its time. The dark blue color of the walls and the quietness of the ship's systems made it all seem more appropriate for this frigate's purpose: a stealth ship. There was power to the very idea of it.

And then his eyes fell upon a woman in officer's BDUs who was at that moment issuing some instructions to some crewmember, and suddenly everything in the ship – everyone, every item, every stray sound, the ship itself even – ceased to exist for a fleeting moment.

He took that small moment to drink in her form. The female-cut BDU-s hugged the curves of her body, a body that was carved into a shape of an athletic goddess, yet a body that exuded elegance and femininity even through the concealing uniform. A body he was privy to. She stood tall and gave an air of confidence where she stood, in what she worked with, the way she spoke.

Her head turned just as she finished giving instructions, and her gaze met his. A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, and a twinkle sparked in her eyes. They teased and challenged him from behind those auburn bangs of her chin-length hair that framed her beautiful face.

He rumbled deep in his throat, calming his raging blood that threatened to sink deep below his waistline. And she smirked. That little minx smirked! She knew him all too well – all his tells by the sight – and she used it mercilessly.

He approached her where she stood at ease in one corner, watching over the workings of the CIC with her hands behind her back, and mimicked her posture as he stood next to her.

"Commander Shepard," he said with a small smile.

"Commander Shepard," she greeted him back with their personal mock-greeting, their eyes locked and reading each other's thoughts effortlessly.

 _You know the first chance I get, I'm going to ravage you senseless, and there'll be nothing you can do about it –_ his blue eyes told her as they pierced deep down into her.

 _Oh, and I expect you to back up those words thrice-over_ – she replied back with that teasing glint that glowed in her violet-pink cybernetics-enhanced eyes.

They broke eye contact and both took a second to compose themselves back into professionalism that was expected of them while they were in uniform. Marcus cleared his throat, returning to his somber, serious state of mind before he looked down at his wife.

"Did Captain say anything about this mission?" he asked, knowing full well that she too must have noticed the numerous deviations from standard procedures about this flight.

She looked up at him with a somber expression and shook her head in the no, her gaze transferring volumes to him. She knew exactly what he was asking, and she was being kept in the dark, too.

He nodded once, then spoke so only she could hear:

"I think we're doing a covert pickup. A Prothean artifact of some sort, most likely."

"I thought so, too," she said for his ears only. "I have the info that they stumbled onto some new ruins when they began expanding the settlement area around the spaceport. On another note, I have an odd feeling about that Spectre."

"More than what you'd expect from a Spectre?" he asked.

She nodded slightly. "He's taken to monitoring our way of operating the ship – no surprise there – but he's also taken special attention to a few crew members; me, among others. He does a good job of not being conspicuous about it, but you notice such things if you're one of _us_."

"Do you think you're his direct person of interest, or if it's Anderson he's interested in?" he asked. "He could be just monitoring you for an additional read on the captain. It would only be consistent with how we operate in the N7: evaluate the associates, not just the target itself."

"What you say stands," she said. "But I don't think it's the captain or me that Nihlus is interested in. Anderson and he had spent a significant amount of time in consultations behind closed doors; if Spectres are comparable with N7 in their methods, then Nihlus's person of interest is someone he had thus far avoided having contact with at all." She paused, then looked up at him. "The only one who fits the description is you, Marcus."

He let out a pensive rumble from his throat.

"If that's true, then what do you think is the reason for that?" he asked.

"No idea," she said, then smirked. "Maybe they're considering someone for a Spectre candidacy."

Marcus's lips started to spread into a joking smile, then abruptly halted and turned serious. He looked down at his wife and saw that she too had stopped smiling as she realized it on her own too, and was looking back at him with all seriousness.

It made sense. The humanity was pushing for this for a long while, they both knew that.

"Still, better to not get my hopes up," he said at last.

"Yeah," she responded with a nod, then added. "Would be nice, though."

"Oh? Why do you think so?"

Instead of answering she just looked up at him with that teasing glint in her eyes, and he read all that she was thinking.

 _If you were to become a Spectre, then it means that_ fraternization _regulations wouldn't apply to us anymore_ – she wanted to say.

He had to smirk and shake his head. That's how it was with this woman. Whenever they had their leaves and vacations, they matched them with the approval of their superiors and spent eighty percent of those times rumpling the sheets, with other twenty percent being imbued with sexual tension. Becoming a Spectre and remaining near each other might not be such a good thing at all… neither of them would get any work done.

"I better go," he said with a chuckle.

"Yeah," she nodded, and he started walking toward the front of the ship.

As he approached the cockpit, he heard pilot over the comm, calling out final pre-jump sequences. When he stepped in, he saw the Spectre, Nihlus Kryik, standing a pace behind the pilot's chair, observing the work of the two men at the flight controls.

Marcus gave only superficial attention to what the pilot was doing as he glanced sideways and weighed the Specter in all seriousness. The turian radiated the stoic, disciplined, almost haughty demeanor his race was known for, yet his glowing green eyes radiated brilliance in a way that few people had.

That, and the Spectre was doing his best to appear as if Marcus wasn't there.

With a corner of his eye, Marcus scanned the Spectre's Phantom armor. Rare and very expensive stuff. Very high quality. Not something any regular branch of the military would wear. It matched his knowledge of the Spectres: each Spectre an independent team on itself, using whatever gear or means they deemed best, and nobody to tell them how to do their job. A dangerous edge to walk on.

The pilot's announcement caught his attention.

"The board is green, approach run has begun," the man said. "Hitting the relay in three… two… one…"

The tendrils of lightning jumped out from the bluish relay core, connecting to the ship's mass effect bubble, and catapulted it through the relay transition corridor from Arcturus system toward the two thousand light years distant Exodus Cluster.

Marcus cast a glance through the cockpit window. The mass-free corridor seemed almost like a tunnel made of water, the blue and infrared light spectrums mixing like wisps of smoke as the ship cut through the light waves. The stars, constellations, and nebulae shifted around them, not just the ship passing them by, but as if shifting through time from where they were thousands of years ago because of the time it took light to travel in real-space.

He returned his attention back to the status checks that the pilot was going through:

"Transit corridor – stable. Navigation… check. Estimated time of primary relay transition: fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes is quick," Nihlus noticed. "This ship's eezo core to mass ratio is having a beneficial effect to relay transit speed; interesting to see that you're managing to rein all that power in, though. Your captain will be pleased."

Then, he turned and left the cockpit. Marcus watched the man go from the corner of his eye. It was a high praise for a human coming from a turian. Not something that happens very often.

"I hate that guy," the pilot, Joker, said when Nihlus was far enough away.

"Nihlus gave you a compliment," spoke Lieutenant Alenko from the copilot's seat. "So – you hate him."

"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom – that's good. I'm handling the ship that's equivalent of an F1 racer that has an oversized rocket engine attached. So, that's impressive!" he ranted. "Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having him onboard. Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid," Alenko retorted. "The Council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment."

Marcus raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing the lieutenant carefully from the corner of his eye. The man was either purposefully downplaying what was going on, or he truly believed what he was saying.

"Yeah, well, what you're saying is the official story," Joker pointed out. "But only an idiot believes in official stories."

"Joker is right, lieutenant," Marcus said quietly. "You need to think outside of the box. Spectres are not sent on shakedown runs; they operations they're employed on are of a much higher profile."

"So, there's more going on here than the captain's letting on," Joker said.

"Of course there is," Shepard spoke. "Fully staffed ship, a Spectre, an additional N7, a fully loaded M37 Mako…"

"You make it sound like we're going to war, Commander," Alenko said with a smirk, trying to make light of the situation. "I'm sure it's simpler than that."

"Lieutenant, you're an officer," Marcus started, then looked at Joker. "Both of you are. Your job is to lead men into battles and win them. How can you achieve that it you take the things you see in front of you at face value? The opponent will always try to trick you with false intel; we need to be able to see through that."

He then smirked and let amusement float in his voice. "So, by all means, Alenko, do not be afraid to pick at this 'truth' the officials gave us. Something tells me we'll only be seeing a lot more of it, and us soldiers are poorly trained to deal with politics."

Joker turned to look at Marcus, then said:

"Can I openly gloat now for being right?"

Marcus couldn't help but let out a chuckle and noticed that Alenko was smirking too, even though he was shaking his head.

Suddenly, comm system buzzed, and Captain Anderson's gruff voice came through:

"Joker, status report!"

"We're clear and solid in the relay transit corridor, Captain," he said. "Thirteen minutes till exit. Everything looks solid."

"Good," the captain responded. Shepard could detect a hint of relief in his voice. The captain was tense about this. "As soon as we reach the Exodus, I want us linked into the network. I want mission reports relayed back to the Alliance before we reach Eden Prime. And tell Marcus Shepard to meet me in the comm room for a debriefing."

"Aye-aye, sir," Joker said, then looked slightly sideways. "You heard that, Commander?"

Marcus nodded with a hum and turned on his heel, walking back toward the CIC. "Looks like it's time for me to be briefed on whatever this mission is all about."

He walked back through the CIC and into the comm room, descending down the short hallway into the circular chamber. The Spectre, Nihlus Kryik, was on the far side, analyzing what he knew to be the images of Eden Prime: lush green meadows, arcology towers, forests – the works.

"Commander Shepard," Nihlus spoke, turning away from the viewing screen and looking at him directly for the first time ever. "I was hoping you'd get here first; it will give us a chance to talk."

Marcus walked around him, observing just the same. "I'm listening," he said.

"I'm interested in this planet we're going to," the turian said. "Eden Prime. I've heard it's quite beautiful."

"I've heard the same," Marcus responded. "Though I don't understand what that's got to do with the artifact we're supposed to pick up."

Nihilus' mandibles twitched slightly, and the turian's posture immediately changed to that of guarded caution, his eyes narrowing at Marcus.

"I wasn't aware that the captain already told you about the beacon," he said accusingly. "This information was supposed to be classified."

"The captain didn't tell me anything," Marcus retorted and inclined his head toward Nihlus. "You did."

Nihlus's eyes widened and his mandibles dropped a fraction in slight bewilderment, before a smile of pleasant surprise broke out on his features.

"Cunning, Commander," he said, nodding approvingly. "So, you deduced something was going on. How did you piece it together?"

"This mission was assembled with urgency," Marcus started. "When that happens, the pieces stick out like a sore thumb; they cannot be hidden. A shakedown run made with full staff and the fully stocked- up ship? The stealth systems operational from the moment we left Terra Station? An additional N7 agent assigned to the ship, a Council Spectre overseeing an operation, and we were going to an uneventful planet with the only thing of note to it were the Prothean ruins?"

"Your information pool and deducing skills are impressive," Nihlus concluded, folding his arms across his chest. "I say this because I know from experience that few people in the military have the insight to look at the broader picture – to look beyond of what is just their job."

"A lot of people on this ship had already figured out that something unusual going on," Marcus countered.

"But how many of them had managed to piece it all up and lure someone like me into revealing it?" Nihlus countered back.

"On their own? Not including me?" Marcus clarified. "One other."

Nihlus fluttered his mandibles pensively. "Of course. Jaina Shepard, your wife. I imagined it might be so; I have studied her file – she fits the bill. As far as this is concerned, you are right, Commander. There was a discovery on one of the recent digs on Eden Prime – a unique artifact from the Prothean era. Before we go into any details, though, it'd be best to wait for Captain Anderson; he's familiarized with the situation and needs to be here."

"Fair enough," Marcus said, and just as he did, a hiss came from behind him, and the doors opened to welcome both Anderson and Jaina descending into the debriefing room together.

"I see we're all here," Anderson spoke up as he cast a glance across everyone, then nodded toward Nihlus. "Then we can begin. I assume you've acquainted Marcus with the true background of our mission?"

"Didn't need to," Nihlus said with a shake of his head as he crossed his arms. "Your ground specialist deduced it on his own."

"Is that so?" Anderson stated with no surprise whatsoever before he turned his gaze to Jaina. "Then that means you know it too."

"So, it _is_ a Prothean artifact," Jaina said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Nihlus remained silent for a moment, just carefully scrutinizing the two commanders before him.

"It looks like we have more than few capable heads on this ship," he said at last. "Good. We'll need that if this mission is to go smoothly."

"You want both of us on point with this?" Marcus asked.

"I want the best whenever possible," Nihlus said. "And you two are here now. So that settles it."

"And I assume you don't have an issue with Jaina and me working together on the same mission?" Marcus asked, looking questioningly at Anderson.

"Not this time, Marc," the man said, raising his hand. "This is effectively a Spectre op. The Alliance regs are void for the duration of this mission and whatever further task it might entail. What matters the most is to get this job done."

"Fair enough," Marcus said, then shared a look with Jaina before he looked back at Nihlus. "Alright – so it's pretty obvious that this is a covert pickup. But what I don't understand is why was the Normandy rushed out into this mission even before its shakedown runs."

"I agree," Jaina said. "You wouldn't send a Spectre and an experimental warship for a piece of Prothean artwork. What are we dealing with here?"

Nihlus nodded in affirmation before he walked to the console, and pressed a button. The screen of Eden Prime scenery switched to an image of a large alien white-grey obelisk, more than thrice as tall as was the scientist that stood next to it, with green lights and symbols glowing on some of its surfaces.

Marcus and Jaina leaned forward in surprise. Frowns of concentration etched on their faces as the examined the image in great detail.

"It's active," Marcus stated.

"Now that _is_ big," Jaina murmured somberly.

"That is the Prothean beacon in question," Nihlus said. "It was uncovered in a sealed chamber that might or might not have functioned as some sort of command hub. The thing was broadcasting a repeating energy signal – hence the scientists naming it as they did. We don't know what it truly is or what it was supposed to do, but it's obvious that we're dealing with an electronic device; the first active Prothean device found in centuries."

"I see," Jaina murmured as she examined the beacon on the image. "Something like this could be a computer or a communication terminal."

"And, whatever the case, it must have some kind of memory core," Marcus added.

"Precisely," Nihlus said. "The technology of the entire Galaxy was based on Prothean tech, and that was just by reverse-engineering defunct machinery. This thing might very well contain data we never laid eyes on. It might be that this beacon might actually be nothing more than a holographic projector with stored commercials, but it may just very well be a military memory bank that holds weapon blueprints."

"And it all sits smack in the middle of an agricultural planet with nothing but a couple of dozen orbital defense platforms and a few companies of mechanized infantry," Marcus said grimly.

"Exactly!" Nihlus intoned with gravity.

"Both of you understand now why this thing was so covert," Anderson spoke up. "Imagine if batarians were to find out about this. Forget about them organizing another Skyllian Blitz – they'd perform an all-out attack faster than you could think!"

Jaina nodded. "A primary relay pair links Exodus Cluster with Kite's Nest," she said, "and we know the batarians are monitoring everything that's happening over here." She then frowned, and looked pointedly at the captain. "Can we be absolutely sure that there weren't any security leaks?"

"The dig site is under constant military watch," Anderson said. "Comm traffic is monitored, and the science team consists of professional Alliance scientists. They know the importance of keeping this kind of find secret."

"Other than the four of us here, the only ones who know of this are the top brass of the Systems Alliance, and the Councilors themselves," Nihlus added.

"That's why the Normandy was sent," Anderson said. "We're the fastest ship in the damn Galaxy, and we have the advantage of the stealth systems. A larger ship would attract attention, and we don't want there to be so much as a hint of this operation. Officially, the Normandy is still docked at Terra Station."

"So you say, but Jaina and I did not deduce this information from the things that are hidden, but from the things that are not," Marcus pointed out. "Some random crewman on Terra Station might have seen the Normandy leave; he might have mentioned it to someone…"

Jaina picked up for him: "Someone like the Shadow Broker might already know that something is happening on Eden Prime. The information might already be disseminated among enemies of the Alliance. I'll be a lot happier once we have that beacon in our hands."

"Of course, that aspect of our mission will be the most important," Nihlus agreed.

"Oh?" Jaina spoke up interestedly. "There are other things to this mission?"

"That is also true," Anderson said. "Nihlus is here to evaluate you, Marcus."

Marcus turned to look at his wife, who smirked back at him.

"Told ya so," she replied with a shrug.

"Christ, Shepard," Anderson chuckled, addressing them both with that name. "Is there anything you two don't already know?"

"What can I say, Captain," Jaina smiled back. "We like the challenge."

Nihlus, just stood there with his arms crossed, scrutinizing the two Commanders carefully, and all the while a small smile of approval was hovering on his mandibles.

"Well, this just might be the challenge of a lifetime," Anderson replied somberly to Jaina's statement. "The Alliance has been pushing this for years. We want a greater influence on galactic affairs – that's only natural, of course; but we won't be getting that seat on the Council any time soon if we're not ready to show that we're ready to look at the big picture. If our best military operative would join the Spectres, instead of just working for the Alliance, that would just show that we'd be able to make sacrifices for the sake of the Galaxy – just like turians do by providing military protection."

Marcus frowned as he looked at Anderson straight in the eyes.

"I understand what you're saying, Captain, but this has all the markings of a political move, rather than anything really purposeful. The politics aren't something I want to be a part of. Couldn't you find anyone else who would fit the parameters better?"

"That's exactly what we're _not_ trying to do," Anderson stated with finality as he walked around the chamber. "Several of the politicians back home _tried_ pushing for more… politically correct candidates. They were solidly turned down."

"And it was a right choice for the Alliance to do so," Nihlus said firmly. "Being a Spectre might be viewed as prestigious position, but galactic peace is not achieved by noble deeds and political correctness. I'm telling you outright that few Spectres are paragons of virtue that the propaganda is trying to label them with. Let there be no doubt in your mind that we are the people that do what needs to be done, no matter how ugly it might be.

"So, yes – the political segment of the Alliance had tried putting forth the candidates that would be good for nothing but the show for the cameras," he continued, "but that's not what we're looking for. You, however, have had a life filled with experiences where you did what you had to do. You've fought on the streets on Earth, you've fought against batarian slavers on Mindoir, you've defended Elysium, survived thresher maw attack on Akuze, and you did what needed to be done on Torfan. Such a remarkable willpower and insight into a big picture is a rare talent. That's why I put your name forward as a candidate for the Spectres."

" _You_ put my name forward?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I can understand why it would come as a surprise to you, Commander," Nihlus said. "Relations between humans and turians might still be cold, but not all turians resent humanity. Some of us see the potential of your species… what you can do for the Galaxy. That's why we want you in the Spectres. I don't care that you're human, Shepard, I only care that you can get the job done."

Marcus was silent for a moment, thinking on and storing away what Nihlus had just said. He felt contentment in hearing that the things were really like that.

He shared a look with Jaina, then, sharing volumes with their eyes; the most significant thing was the support in her firm and unshakable gaze. He nodded lightly before he turned his gaze back to Nihlus.

"I understand everything you're saying," he said, "but my allegiance ultimately belongs to humanity. Even if I was a Spectre, I would never do something that would weaken humanity's position."

"Understandable," Nihlus spoke solemnly. "It's just as my allegiance belongs to turians before anyone else. The Council is not stupid, Shepard, despite how it may appear to you; they would never want to jeopardize my allegiance to my own people. So, ask yourself this: if you become a Spectre with nearly unlimited resources, authority, and liberty of action, do you really think they would risk having you turning on them if they were to act against humanity's wellbeing?"

Marcus hummed, thinking it through. "I see your point," he said, then looked at Anderson. "If there was a human Spectre, the Alliance would have a greater influence in the Council just by him being there."

"And humanity needs that, Marcus," Anderson confirmed.

"Alright, I'm bought," Marcus shrugged. "What is it that I need to do in order to be inducted?"

"The ultimate decision lies with the Councilors, of course," Nihlus said. "But it is my evaluation grade that holds all the weight. You strike me as a very intelligent and cunning individual, Commander, and that's not something a mere service record can depict, which already gives you points. However, no matter how stellar your achievements might seem on paper, I still need to see you in action – to see your methods, reactions, your… battle mind, so to speak. Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together."

"And on that note," Anderson took the opportunity to speak, as he approached the console and punched in a few commands. The screen showed the tactical layout of the spaceport, the settlement, and the excavation site.

"You will be in charge of the ground team, Marcus," Anderson spoke. "You will go to the dig site in the Mako, secure the beacon, and then use the hover-trailer provided on location to immediately transport it back to the ship. Nihlus will accompany you to observe the mission. Jaina, you will coordinate with the ground team from the CIC. Are we all clear?"

"Straightforward enough," Jaina said.

"Good," Anderson said, then looked at his watch. "We should be jumping out of the relay transit right about… now."

There was a very light sense of shifting through the ship.

"Some good inertial dampeners right there," Nihlus commented appreciatively.

"I'll say," Anderson agreed. "Now that we're here, we can begin the preparation. We should be arriving at Eden Prime within –".

He was interrupted by Joker's voice over the comms: "Captain, we have a problem."

"What is it, Joker?"

"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You better see this!"

Anderson punched a command on the console, and the screen switched to the video feed.

Sounds of massive firefight and explosions filled the air. The image of the video was swinging back-and-forth, consistent with the cameraman running. The recognizable sound of Alliance weaponry burst fire was interspersed with a high-pitched sound of unknown weapons. A single female soldier came to view.

"Get down!" she shouted to the cameraman as she pushed him to the ground, and continued firing.

More bluish explosions followed. Plasma blasts, Marcus and Jaina realized, as the blue bullet streaks flashed about; whoever it was, they had some very unusual weaponry, and all four people present were realizing it was not an ordinary attack. One soldier crouched to speak into the camera amidst all the chaos:

"We're under attack, taking heavy casualties! I repeat: heavy casualties! We can't -…. –eed evac! They came out of nowhere. I repeat: we need -"

He was cut off by a round hitting him in the head. The feed continued, and the battle continued, until there a sudden reverberating sound echoing from seemingly everywhere. The soldiers in the feed ceased fire, grabbing their heads in seeming pain before they looked up into the sky with shock and fear etched on their faces.

The camera view turned, and the four people in Normandy's comm room saw a massive construction that resembled a metallic hand descending from the sky, with red lightning dancing across its surface.

A few more seconds of battle followed before the image was replaced by static.

"It all cuts out after that, Captain," Joker announced. "No comm traffic from Eden Prime at all. Just goes dead."

Anderson rewound the recording and paused at the image of the giant alien construction. Marcus nodded toward the screen, and asked:

"Have you ever seen that kind of ship, Nihlus?"

Nihlus twitched his mandibles, a concentrated frown on his face. "No," he said. "We can't be even sure if that's a spaceship."

"Well, it's certainly not a blimp," Jaina countered dryly.

Nihlus was silent for a moment. "I'd have to agree," he said gravely. "It appears massive, though; larger than a cruiser. I don't know how it can keep itself afloat on a planet of this size."

Anderson listened wordlessly before he called out to Joker:

"Joker, status report!"

"Seventeen minutes out, Captain. No other Alliance ships in the area."

Anderson punched the key on the console and a dull claxon sounded throughout the ship, with a recorded voice calling out several times: " _General quarters, general quarters! All hands to battle stations; this is not a drill!"_

"Our mission remains the same," Anderson spoke. "Except that it just became a lot more complicated."

"Looks like someone really did find out about the beacon," Jaina spoke up, then frowned at the images of combat in concentration. "I find the scale of the attack to be disconcerting, though. Eden Prime has a flotilla of ships protecting the system. It also has a ring of ODP-s, and the city and its area are defended by a battalion of troops. The attack seems strong enough to have wiped all of that out. An overwhelming assault is the only explanation, and we only have this ship and a six-man squad under Sergeant Miller."

"I agree," Nihlus spoke. "Whatever we're facing, it's obvious we cannot fight them man-for-man However, a small, specialized strike team can move fast without drawing attention. It is our best chance to secure the beacon. I advise no more than four people on foot."

"You, Marcus, Miller and Alenko, then," Anderson said.

"Actually, a much better option would be using Commander Jaina here, instead of Miller," Nihlus spoke. "He's an N2, and Jaina here is an N7 and a trained biotic, and thus brings a lot more firepower. Three biotics can do a lot of damage."

Anderson didn't waste a moment.

"You heard him, Jaina," he stated decisively. "Suit up, and meet us in the cargo hold!"

"Aye-aye, sir!" she replied, and ran out of the comm room without wasting precious time.

Marcus activated person-to-person comm.

"Jaina, we're dealing with plasma weapons here," he said as he reviewed the battle footage. "Make sure both you and Alenko have set your shields to alternating frequencies. I have a spare mod in my locker if you need it."

"Roger!" she replied through the comm.

"I have never seen weaponized plasma before," Anderson spoke gravely.

"I have, but those were experimental prototypes," Nihlus said. "Nothing of this scale we see here."

"We've never seen a ship like _that_ , either," Marcus said, as he pointed at the image of the giant hand-like vessel. "Stealth drive or no, we will be seen once we're in the atmosphere, and I don't want to test our defenses against any weapons that that thing might have."

They were silent for a fleeting moment, before Anderson spoke grimly, "Follow me," and then he walked out of the comm room, and into the CIC.

He swiftly climbed onto the command platform and activated his tactical display, tapping the general comms.

"Alright people," he called out. "We are operating under the assumption that we have a hostile anti-warship presence on the ground of Eden Prime, localized around the spaceport. Presley! Give me an approach vector that wouldn't expose us to their visual scans – a ravine, if possible. Joker, you are to take us in nice and quiet, nothing splashy!"

"I've got just the thing, Captain," Presley replied as he brought up a 3D projection of a ravine. "This ravine is shielded by mountains – it will hide us from any visual detection – and it approaches the spaceport at five clicks at this location."

"That one will do," Anderson said as he looked over the map on the display before he turned to the two men. "Anything you think needs to be added?"

"No, sir," Marcus said.

"Nothing," Nihlus agreed.

"Then head down to the cargo hold," Anderson said. "Kaidan and Jaina should be ready by now."

The turian and human turned on their heels and walked out as one.

As the doors closed behind them, Anderson turned back to his tactical display and brought up the image of the alien ship that had landed on Eden Prime, and frowned grimly as his gaze bored holes in the image. It was more alien than anything he had ever seen, and a sense of foreboding spread through the man's core.

"What the hell are you?" he wondered under his breath.


	3. Chapter 3 - Strike Back

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _You may have noticed in the first chapter that I had altered the layout of the Normandy to an extent. This is in part because the in-game Normandy inner layout doesn't match the ship's external and general shape. Additionally, I find the idea of a sleeping coffin – I mean pod; sleeping pod – to be completely idiotic. That area up to the front could have been used to actually make small four-bunk bedrooms. It is details such as this that the engineer in me likes altering and will be altering a lot throughout this story, so expect that._

 _I encourage you to leave a review for me – not just so I could know whether you like the story or not, but to see whether there are flaws. Unless it's tech aspect of the story; in that regard just trust me – I'm an engineer_ _._

 _I am not a native English speaker, and it is entirely possible that I may be messing up certain forms of writing – such as the form in which dialogues are displayed, meaning errors in commas or such. If you happen to be an English literature major (or something of the sort) and see any errors there, I'd appreciate it if you simply notified me about the matter._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 18.11.2016.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

 **Chapter 3 – Strike Back**

As he entered the cargo hold with Nihlus, Marcus saw Jaina and Kaidan in their suits of armor, performing the final weapons and gear checkup next to the gearing and armory section of the hold. He saw that Kaidan wore a standard Alliance light armor along with standard-issue weapons; he didn't like that. The standard grunt armor and gear that Alliance equipped its soldiers with was sub-par when compared to others.

Jaina, however, was an entire matter altogether. Her armor and gear were of much higher grade, and he was grateful to himself for having the insight to persuade the suit engineering division to provide for the female version of the armor suit that he wore as well.

As he checked her out wearing that armor for the first time, though, he became acutely aware that she was the one that wore that armor better than he ever could; and he would most certainly not complain. The armor seemed to be almost purposefully streamlined to her figure, hugging her female curves like armored and plated skin, with the sections emphasizing them to a great extent. He would need to personally thank those engineers.

Tearing his eyes off her figure, he checked out the rest of her gear, his eyes passing critically over the weapons he already knew she used.

Her weapon of choice was a powerful semi-automatic sniper rifle intended for taking out heavy targets, but with reduced size and weight to that of a sniper-support rifle. No other quite such weapon existed; he was the one that made it for her. That weapon was slung over her back in its compact form, though, and instead of it, in her arms was a heavily enhanced M-12 Locust SMG for close engagements. Even then, that weapon outclassed Alenko's M-7 by a longshot, which spoke volumes of Lieutenant's poor gear. He rumbled grimly; he'd have to take closer care of him on this mission.

Nihlus returned from his locker where he had grabbed his weapons and rejoined the group just as Marcus activated his omnitool and showed a 3D model of the terrain.

"The terrain is too forested for the Mako," he said. "We'll have to approach on foot and use the cover as much as possible."

"What about the beacon, then?" Alenko asked. "How're we supposed to secure and extract it?"

"The hover-trailer should still be there," he replied. "The three of us are biotics. We'll lighten the mass of the whole thing as we push it along. The trailer already has its hover system, so it shouldn't be too taxing."

Nihlus spoke up as he pointed out a section of the map, "It'd be best if I drop here before the rest of you, and go along this ridge. It has plenty of cover and offers a clear line of sight for miles in all directions; I can alert you of the enemy presence and any other development. Meanwhile, this forested area here provides excellent cover for the three of you, and will be an adequate retreat path once you secure the beacon."

Jaina nodded as she examined the map. "I like that. With any luck, we may even remain unseen."

Nihlus nodded and marked the drop points, sending the request to CIC.

Joker called out throughout the ship:

" _Prepare for atmospheric entry…_ "

Not even a slightest shift or a rumble was sensed as the ship pierced the upper layers of the atmosphere and dove into the turbulent air currents.

" _Really_ impressive dampeners," Nihlus murmured under his breath.

"Sir," Alenko called. "What about survivors?"

Marcus shook his head. "The beacon is our top priority, Lieutenant. We're not equipped for a rescue mission, and we must do this without attracting attention. If we encounter any, all we can do is order them to stay hidden."

"Understood, sir," Alenko replied.

Marcus grabbed his plate-mask helmet and pulled it over his head. The inner suit layer and soft armor weave sealed up around the separation point, activating the HUD and giving him the full awareness of his surroundings and his teammates' statuses.

" _Approaching drop point one,"_ Joker called out over the comms.

The claxons sounded, and a pair of yellow warning lights on either side of the cargo bay doors started pulsing. A moment later, an increasing roar of rushing wind marked the lowering of the massive hangar doors, and orange afternoon light blazed in, with a barrier blocking the air currents from surging into the cargo hold.

The ship decelerated, and hovered a dozen meters above ground. Nihlus sprinted forward and leaped over the edge into the open air. The ship's infantry-drop system immediately launched a mass effect field that enveloped him and braked his descent before he hit the ground, depositing him as lightly as if he had vaulted a fence.

The Normandy moved immediately, continuing down the path to the drop point two. Joker called it out over the comms, and the three-person group ran toward the opening, jumping and dropping down to the grown in the same manner as Nihlus did a minute earlier.

The moment they landed, Marcus activated his helm's integrated cam recording system and made sure everything he saw or heard was being recorded, including his vitals' status and HUD. He looked at Jaina, and she nodded back, signaling wordlessly that she had done the same. Kaidan didn't have that gear on him; only spec ops personnel had the practice of using it.

The team advanced quickly toward the first nav-point that was marked on their HUD-s, as Nihlus reported in:

"This place has been hit hard, Commander," he said. "I can see lots of fires burning from my vantage point; destroyed vehicles, houses, trams… lots of tracer rounds flying through the air. There must be significant resistance by the civilians; I can't imagine it being anybody else."

"Makes sense," Jaina spoke quietly. "Ever since Mindoir, the colonies have intentionally lax laws pertaining weapon permits. Wouldn't be surprised if half the adults had a rifle."

"Also," Nihlus continued slowly, "I've spotted that strange vessel we saw on the distress call. It's standing right next to the star port. The damn thing's gigantic. Over two kilometers tall if my VI's visual comparison to the star port control tower is accurate."

"Any activity from it?" Marcus asked.

"In a manner of speaking," Nihlus said grimly. "It's as if it's swaying gently on its legs, which shouldn't be possible judging by its size. That thing looks almost like a living thing. Proceed with utmost caution, Shepard; I'm thinking this might actually be a first contact scenario with some alien species."

The line went off, and Marcus motioned his squad to continue through a wooded gully until they came upon a rising slope filled with large rocky outcroppings.

He signaled a halt, then motioned Jaina into a sniping position. He moved across the clearing first, taking up an aiming stance once he reached the safety of the rock wall. Kaidan followed, but before he was halfway to his cover, Marcus heard whizz of multiple hover engines approaching them _fast_.

Suddenly, a group of odd gray hover drones stormed out of the copse on top of the hill and launched a hail of blue bolts toward the single man out in the open. With lightning speed, Marcus channeled a biotic pull and yanked Alenko out of the way of the bolt hailstorm just as his shielding collapsed, sending the man plowing through the dirt behind his position – grunting in impact, but unharmed.

Loud blasts of semi-automatic sniper rifle filled the air, and drones started dropping one by one in rapid succession – each bullet claiming one drone with uncanny precision, each round blasting through the drones' shields and armor as if they weren't there. More drones swooped out of the trees, joining the remaining ones as they turned and started peppering Jaina's cover with rounds, putting pressure onto the sniper that was picking them off.

Seeing this, Marcus calmly raised his left fist over the cover and launched a wide-beam EMP blast toward the group of drones. There was a wave of sizzling pops, followed by a sound of mass clanging against the rocky ground, and then – nothing.

Marcus peered over the edge, and made sure there was no movement, before calling out:

"Status!"

"Check," Jaina called calmly.

"Check," Kaidan groaned from where he was crouching as he sputtered dirt out of his mouth.

Marcus stormed forward with his rifle at the ready, before taking position behind cover at the top of the hill, overlooking the copse and scanning for the enemy.

"On me!" he called.

"Coming to ya!" came Jaina's report, and both she and Kaidan ran up to him before they crouched down behind cover and began examining one of the downed drones.

"Jesus, they just ripped right through my shields," Kaidan spoke with a sense of dread. "And to think I actually amped them with the mod you provided me with!"

"No wonder when your shield emitter maxes out at two hundred kilojoules," Jaina commented absently as she picked up the drone and looked it over. "There's not much a mod can strengthen up, to begin with."

"We're getting you some _real_ gear the first chance we get," Marcus added. "I won't be losing men under my command. Jaina, what do you have?"

"Never saw anything like this, Marc," she said. "No standard template parts, markings… only something that looks like some alien q-code…" she swiftly rammed her black N7 KA-bar knife through the seam where the plates joined, splitting the drone effortlessly with the flick of her wrist. "Nope, definitely not standard-manufactured parts."

Marcus tapped his comm link and spoke:

"Nihlus, we have hostile drones of unknown make. Their weapons fire bolts of what is most likely phased plasma – it rips right through ordinary shields."

"Copy that," the flanged voice responded back. "I have noticed what appear to be enemy troops close to the spaceport, but they're too far away for me to give an accurate assessment of who they are."

"Understood," Marcus spoke, then cut the link. "Alenko, maintain your biotic barriers up at all times. Forget about biotic offence, and focus on tech support. I think we obviously have synthetics for enemies. You have the gear to overload their weapons and shields, right?"

"Yes, sir," Kaidan nodded.

"Good. Move out!"

The team advanced quickly through the wooded grove, moving at a quick trot and with their senses alert, with Jaina switching to her SMG and Kaidan using his shotgun for the expanse of the forest. They double timed down the open slope that was there when they exited the expanse of the copse when the sounds of alien phasic gunfire reached them just as they reached the bottom.

Jaina vaulted up onto the nearby boulder with feline grace and fell into sniper cover, and Marcus stormed toward a boulder with augmented speed, sliding down into the low cover with a slide-kick, the dirt and pebbles launching into the air. He pushed up on the knee of the sliding leg, his rifle already up and aiming toward the gunfire as he sighted a woman in armor as she ran from the pair of enemy drones in close pursuit.

The first drone fell to Jaina's powerful rifle, not half a second after it came in view, the second one following just as quickly before Marcus launched a series of quick bursts from his rifle. The drones blasted out of the air with staggering speed, causing the fleeing woman to dive into a combat roll, grab her pistol, and unleash a rapid staccato of bullet fire into the remaining drone as she fell back.

Just as Marcus was about to call out to her, a group of what appeared to be no less than six non-standard mechs raced out from behind a curve in the path and started firing toward the marine who was scrambling to get up amidst the puffs of dirt launched by incoming bullets around her feet.

Taking matters into his own hands, he instantly unleashed a biotic push into the woman, sending her flying into the safety of the nearby cover with an audible " _hhuugh_ " on her part. Without any preamble, he leveled his Mattock toward the enemy and unleashed a full and sustained burst of high-explosive rounds into the tightly grouped enemy, immediately being joined by Jaina's similarly-modded Locust, and Kaidan's Lancer.

Enemy shields were shredded as if they never were, explosive blasts striking all over their armor, twisting metal, ripping limbs apart and sending bodies flying, ending when Marcus launched a single guided concussive shot, detonating a massive blast of fire and shrapnel that finished the entire group, and then another one for good measure.

And then everything went quiet. For a few fleeting moments, there was silence broken only by clinks of falling metal.

"Clear!" Kaidan called.

"Clear!" Jaina finished.

Marcus flicked his hand toward the sides of the perimeter, pointing Jaina and Kaidan toward defensive covers from which they had a sweeping overlay of the area. As the two moved wordlessly to a defensible sentineling position, he walked briskly toward the soldier woman they've just saved as she raised herself shakily on her feet.

"Stay down," he demanded, pointing a finger to her authoritatively as he approached. "I pushed you pretty hard; you might be injured!" He crouched next to her, grabbing her chin and leaning in to check her eyes. "How do you feel?" he asked when he was satisfied.

"Ready and able, sir," she said readily as she tried to catch her breath. "Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams of the 212th. You just saved my life there; I assure you, I have nothing to complain about! Are you in charge here?"

"I am," he nodded. "Commander Marcus Shepard, of the SSV Normandy."

He then motioned with his head toward Jaina who had picked a sniping position from a nearby cover.

"This is Commander Jaina Shepard –"

"The wife," Jaina called – to the other woman's confusion,

"And that is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko," Marcus finished.

"Commander Shepard of Eden Prime?!" Williams asked, her eyes wide as she eyed the N7 logo on his chest. "Well – daymn! – it must be really big if they've sent you here… you _are_ here for that Prothean beacon, aren't you?"

"That's the idea, Chief," he confirmed as he walked toward the burning wreckage of the enemy mechs whose remains were strewn around.

"Tell me, Chief, what happened here," he said as he holstered his rifle and crouched next to the mech of which only an upper part of the torso with arms and a head remained, and launched a complex omni-tool scan, examining the wreck closely.

Williams took a deep breath and swallowed as she crouched down next to him.

"Oh, man. Uh… We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack came," she said and pointed in a general direction of their intended path. "They virtually came out of nowhere. One moment everything was normal, and the next – bombardment blazing everywhere."

"Artillery?" he asked.

"No, sir," she shook her head. "It was aerial, coming from the ships. They were these weird things, too, all metal gray, sleek and curvaceous – like wasps without legs or wings. I've never seen anything like them. They bombarded the GARDIAN turrets, taking them out during the first volley. That's when these things started dropping en masse," she said as she nodded toward the mangled remains of the mech. "They tore into us, shock and awe. We tried to fight back, but there were just so many of them. I got separated from my unit after a flanking maneuver failed. I think… I think I'm the only one left."

Marcus silently listened as he closely examined the remains of the synthetic, then called out to Jaina as he pointed toward the mech:

"Hey, Jay, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Geth, no doubt about it," she said with finality, not taking her eyes off the area she was sighting down.

"I-I thought so, too, sir, but I couldn't be sure," Ashley said.

"If that's truly Geth," Kaidan spoke up, "then what are they doing all the way out here?"

"It's only four primary relay jumps from the Perseus veil to here, Lieutenant," Jaina spoke. "And it leads through the sparsely-populated region of the Terminus and the Traverse. They could hide a fleet as close as the Voyager Cluster, and none would be the wiser."

"Yes, but why _here_?" Alenko pointed out with genuine puzzlement. "Geth space is almost halfway across the Galaxy, and they haven't been seen outside of the Perseus Veil in over three hundred years. One would think the one they attack would be the quarians or someone in the Terminus, not us all the way over here."

"I can think of a number of good reasons, but we don't have the time to discuss it," Marcus said, then activated the comm and signaled Nihlus. "Nihlus, the enemies are Geth. I repeat: the enemies are Geth."

"Understood, Commander," Nihlus replied. "Will adjust accordingly."

Marcus closed the channel, then took a spare disruptor ammo mod out of his belt pocket and called out, "Alenko, install this into your rifle!" and then he tossed it his way. "Now, Williams, you were assigned to guard duty at the dig site, yes?"

"Yes, sir," she replied.

"Do you consider yourself fit enough to take us to the Prothean beacon they've uncovered?"

"Ready and able, sir!" she replied sharply.

"Give me your rifle," he said, to what Williams promptly handed over her Lancer. With skilled swiftness, Marcus removed the upper cover casing, took out the final spare disruptor mod from his belt pouch, clicked it in place over the bared rifle bore, and resealed the casing.

"Take it," he said, handing over the improved gun. "You'll be staying close to Alenko. With you in that Phoenix armor, neither one of you has enough shields to protect you from more than a few direct shots, so you two are to stay back and provide thick support and suppressive fire, and nothing else. I don't want to see you anywhere near the enemy. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" the two answered as one.

"Move out!"

The team moved quickly down the path in an organized staggered formation: Marcus up front, Jaina to his left and back wielding the Locust, followed by Ashley to the right, and finally Kaidan to the back, both with their Lancers at ready.

They wasted no time on finding cover, trusting Marcus's and Jaina's superior shielding boosted with their biotic barriers to take the brunt of any sudden assault. There were no enemies, though, even though the sounds of battle were thick in the distance.

After a few minutes of progress, they climbed over the crest of the hill and were greeted with the impressive sight of the excavation itself.

"Someone was doing a lot of digging here," Alenko commented.

He was right; the excavation was not a mere hole in the ground. The thing covered a vast expanse of surface, well over two hundred meters in diameter and two dozen meters deep, and looked like someone had simply stripped a whole layer of earth away. Angular structures that looked like a mix of stone and metal rose up from where a concrete bottom could be seen among the dirt, looking like remnants of some gigantic structure.

But that's not what had Marcus's attention. It was the enormous dark blue-gray metallic structure in the distance beyond the site, which towered like a spire over everything within dozens of miles. He couldn't see the lower half from his point, but it was clear that it was that alien ship they saw land in the transmission.

"It's that freak ship that landed," Williams pointed out when she noted where everyone had their attention. "Look at the friggin' size of it! It's bigger than any building I've ever seen! I don't know how it managed to land."

"We can't worry about it now," Marcus said. "Come on… show us to the beacon."

"Right! It should be over there, behind that wall of excavated dirt" Williams pointed. "We can get there quickest if we follow that path."

Marcus nodded. "Take point," he commanded, and then followed right behind her, holding his one hand on her back and the other aiming with his rifle over her shoulder, exerting control over her advance and movements.

They descended quickly down into the ancient ruins, and just as they had swung the bend that should have taken them to where the beacon apparently was located, a group of enemy geth started pouring rounds in their direction.

"Down!" Marcus barked, his hand that was on Williams' back pushing her readily into a cover, and mentally activating his neural stim-implants.

Before she was even halfway down into the cover, Marcus's blood was flooded with epinephrine and tetraezonine, the implant chip causing his neural processing power to skyrocket. Time slowed down to a crawl, and it took him a microsecond to realize that the geth were heavily entrenched.

Nine hostiles were spread in strategic positioning. Two snipers, four shock troopers, two heavies, and geth turret analogue were already moving to begin their spray toward them. They were aware of them coming, most likely because of the loss of their group that had chased Williams. He knew it would be hard for them to flush the Geth out. The group needed to be shocked into breaking their cover.

The biotic power swirled around him as he focused the mass effect polarities between him and a single geth soldier's position on the farther end of the area, and a protective bubble-barrier formed around him a split second before the biotic Charge unleashed.

In that split second of time dilation, he felt nothing. It was like a free-fall through a gravity well of a star – fast, powerful, and utterly weightless.

And then the biotic power slammed brutally into the cover of the farther geth he had targeted, blasting the concrete into pieces and launching the geth soldier backwards. Wasting no time, he detonated a powerful biotic nova, blasting whatever was left of the geth, and sending a shockwave that knocked the closest geth shock troopers out of their cover.

He made a strafing pirouette, dodging the sudden barrage of phasic rounds and sliding low behind an ancient wall-beam, letting the rounds pepper his position and trusting his team to come through. Just then, he heard a tell-tale sound of a biotic power being launched in his vicinity, followed by a warp detonation and a concussive shot, and then a furious barrage of a pair of Lancer rifles.

He glanced at his HUD, taking in the exact enemy positions that were highlighted by his smart VI before he swung out of his cover and sprayed a short burst of explosive rounds into a nearby geth. He followed through by rolling out and sending a concussive shot toward another, and then an EMP blast toward the turret that had pinned Alenko and Williams.

Alenko didn't waste time and launched an EMP pulse of his own, overloading the destabilized turret into a massive explosion of lightning sparks. Williams followed suit with a concussive shot toward geth sniper positions, forcing them into breaking their position and end up straight in the sights of Jaina's sniper. A single round cut each of them down like a puppet without strings.

A moment of silence followed suit, interrupted only with the last sounds of dying robotics.

"Clear!" Marcus called.

"Clear!" came the response from Alenko.

He raised himself from the new cover he had assumed, and looked around the excavation site. Other than alien concrete walls and a bunch of portable reflector lights, the site was empty.

"Where's the beacon?" he demanded.

"It was right here!" Williams pointed with dismay at the exact spot. "Shit. They must've moved it."

"Our side or the geth?" Alenko asked rhetorically.

"Doesn't matter," Marcus said. "There's only one other way leading out of here."

"Right, there's a scientist camp just over the edge," Ashley pointed up the wall of the dig site, near what appeared to be a vehicle pathway up. "Maybe we'll find more clues there!"

"If the geth took the beacon, they must then be transporting it to the extraction point," Jaina pointed out. "That huge ship would have been my transportation of choice if I was looking for a high-priority target extraction. Something that big that can land on a planet definitely has monstrous kinetic barrier protection."

Marcus merely nodded. "Move out," he called, immediately setting a brisk pace up the slope.

As soon as they climbed all the way up, they saw that it was just as Ashley had said. The scientist camp was just on the edge of the excavation. Wrecked and burning prefabs littered the place, few of them seeming to be intact. Charred human bodies were lying everywhere.

Marcus's comm link crackled to life, followed by Nihlus's voice:

"Commander, what's your status?"

"I've reached the scientist's camp, and it doesn't look good. The beacon was moved – we don't know by who or where – but we think the destination is the spaceport."

"I am looking at the spaceport now," Nihlus said. "There is some activity on the far side; I see geth troops loading up in what must be their transport ships. Little activity on the side where I'm at. Gonna go down to check it out. Meet you there."

"Roger that," Marcus said, just as he heard Kaidan's disturbed voice exclaim from somewhere to the side.

"Commander! You need to see this!"

Marcus turned his head sharply to look at where Kaidan pointed and saw a bunch of tall metal spikes. With humans impaled on them.

"What did the geth do to them?" Jaina whispered as she took in the glowing blue cybernetics that seemed to invade the ashen-gray skin of the impaled corpses.

"The bigger question is – why?" Marcus retorted cautiously, his senses alert.

Suddenly, one by one, the spikes started to retract into their three-foot base, and as the corpses slid down from the spikes, everybody witnessed the bodies landing on their feet – hunched over and with their arms hanging limply, yes – but standing solidly. The atrocious, mummified heads turned toward them, their disturbing neon blue gazes seeming to look through them.

"My god, they're still alive!" Kaidan shouted before an unearthly howl interrupted him.

The creatures started shuffling toward them like a bunch of cybernetic zombies, their eyes dead despite eerie blue light that emanated from the goggle-like orbs and depths of their mouths, howling madly like the shriek of the damned.

"Open fire!" Marcus roared as he unleashed a barrage into the creeps that began running mindlessly towards them, being immediately followed by others.

The rounds slammed into them, breaking their desiccated cyber-bodies with impunity, but the creatures seemed to completely disregard the damage they were receiving, their self-preservation instincts seemingly destroyed by the invasive cybernetics.

Deciding to take no chance, Marcus unleashed several concussive shots in quick succession into the midst of the advancing shamble, knocking the still-moving creeps from their feet before the successive concussive shots blasted them all into chunks of mummified flesh and cybernetics.

When the battleground finally fell silent, Marcus approached what was one of the less destroyed cybernetic corpses.

"They weren't human anymore," he said grimly as he crouched and examined the body with his omni-tool. "Their skin, organs, nervous system – all of it was invaded by the cybernetics. Whoever these people were – now they're just husks."

"What were the geth trying to achieve by this?" Kaidan wondered in disgusted astonishment. "Why would they want to do this?"

"Makes sense to me," Jaina said, her tone grim as well. "This was to use our people against us – cannon fodder, psychological warfare, you name it. Humans would be repulsed by the idea to shoot someone that was their friend or their neighbor, even if it is just a dead body that moves."

"I don't know about you," Ashley spoke with venom in her voice. "But these geth are due for a major payback, and its due with interest!"

"You'll get your chance, Williams," Marcus said calmly. "We need to link up with Nihlus; we'll need all the firepower we can get."

The team moved quickly out of the encampment toward the spaceport, and before they even passed the final housing units, they heard nearby sounds of gunfire – the high-pitch wheezing of geth rifles interspersed with bursts of standard weaponry.

"Double time!" Marcus commanded, breaking into a full run.

As the buildings of the port came into view, a loud noise sounding like deep-pitched horn reverberated through the air and into their very skulls. Their heads shot up, and they all saw then that the huge alien ship had begun ascending rapidly into the red skies.

The pair of glowing red lights around its central tentacle bared an uncanny resemblance to a pair of hate-filled eyes that seemed to glare back at them.

 _Not a hand_ – Marcus thought somewhere in the back of his head as he watched the silhouette of the retreating ship – _a huge squid. A cuttlefish._

The ship ascended without using any visible thrusters, the horning noise ceasing with its departure, leaving only bursts or rifle fire that brought everyone out of their brief reverie.

Marcus motioned them toward the source with a cutting flick of his hand, and the team moved quickly down, quickly coming up on several colonists in cover behind some large crates, with a group of geth advancing toward their position and putting out suppressive fire. The three colonists weren't having any of that, though, as they were lobbying frag grenades and firing intermittently with pistols and semi-automatic rifles.

In a brief moment, Marcus's eyes locked with Jaina's, and an unspoken thought passed between them: that it was no wonder to them now as to why the fighting could still be seen and heard all over the area. People – rugged, hardened colonists – were rising to defend their homes, no matter how futile it seemed.

With the clueless geth preoccupied with the colonists, the team descended upon their exposed flank like a stampede of barrage fire, concussive shots, and biotics. The force of the rounds launched the geth out of their cover, piercing large holes in their armor before the explosion of the round tore large chunks of metal and shrapnel.

"Incoming!" Jaina shouted suddenly, before bounding up the roof of the nearby prefab unit with feline grace, landing on her belly, and began sending sniper rounds downrange.

Marcus charged across the small open space and slid on his hip into a cover, before popping up to see what Jaina was firing at.

He saw an entire platoon of geth heading their way.

"Stay down!" he commanded the surviving civilians before he aimed down the slope into the oncoming geth and unleashed a long barrage, ending four geth before his Mattock approached overheating, and then sent several concussion missiles into the throng as he allowed his heat sinks to compensate. The small guided missiles that were the concussive round slammed into the burning mass, causing massive explosions in quick succession that sent geth either reeling or dying.

Jaina's semi-automatic sniper was downing any geth that managed to remain standing, and she was already switching to farther targets.

Marcus advanced slowly, alternating between bursts and concussive shots, not giving the geth any chance for respite. Kaidan and Ashley were following closely as they scuttled from cover to cover, providing thick suppressive fire with their Lancers.

The geth countered by erecting a wall of large hexagonal shields that began absorbing large amounts of fire before a blue biotic field began yanked them up into the air.

"Way to go, Kaidan!" Marcus exclaimed as he invoked an unstable warp bolt into the floating throng, the detonation sending the geth in all directions.

The battle was joined by a group of rocket launcher wielding geth, along with three geth that were significantly larger than others.

"Shit," Marcus muttered as the first missile flew toward him.

He activated his stim-implant, the adrenaline boosting his entire organism and seemingly slowing time, giving him the opportunity to react properly.

He dodged under the first missile and evaded the next, both of which exploded harmlessly when they impacted far behind him. Waiving the use of the rifle, he channeled biotics and targeted the path of the new incoming missiles. Tiny warp fields formed in the paths down which the missiles were approaching him, and as the missiles flew through, the disruptive force of the warps twisted the material, detonating the missiles long before they reached any of his teammates.

Channeling last of his biotic energy he could manage before the stim-induced acceleration faded, he sent a light shockwave into the missile wielding geth, staggering them only so much to disrupt their actions.

He launched himself into a combat roll, ending up behind a rocky cover and activating his emergency bio-boost. The suit's dispensers immediately injected him with a pre-prepped nutrient cocktail, the pure-calorie nutrients going straight into his bloodstream and replenishing his body's energy for his biotic usage. He felt an immediate relief as his veins were flooded with badly-needed energy, and he clenched his teeth as he ignored the wave of pinpricks on his face.

Ashley and Kaidan did their suppression job diligently, denying the geth opportunity to aim, allowing Jaina to pick them off with ease from her perch.

The three large geth that were with the group, though, didn't move to hide like the others. Their shielding and armor seemed to be leaps and bounds above that of ordinary geth they encountered so far, and the huge synthetics completely ignored Ashley's and Kaidan's rifle barrage.

Jaina took quick and steady aim, sending a round into each of their faces with laser precision. The high-caliber round pierced through their shields and slammed straight into their flashlights, exploding on impact and splitting the geth heads like flower blossoms. The three huge robots just fell to the ground like the puppets with cut strings.

"Phew!" Jaina exclaimed playfully through the comms. "Those three were real juggernauts! Didn't stand a chance against this mean machine here, though," she patted her sniper rifle, before jumping down from several meters of height onto the ground as if it was nothing, and racing to join up with the group that had pressed on forward.

She caught up with them just as they had reached a dead body lying on the ground. It was Nihlus.

"Damn it!" she cursed when she saw Marcus crouching next to the dead turian Spectre.

"I take it that that turian was one of ours?" Ashley asked as she took to securing the perimeter with Alenko. "The one Commander was speaking with through the comms?"

"Yeah," Kaidan provided grimly, taking a quick glance back before he returned to scouting the area down the sights of his rifle. "His death means this mission just went fubar."

"He was shot at point blank range in the back of the head," Marcus said as he examined the wound. "The wound is burnt by heat, which means the murder weapon's muzzle was inside his shields."

"Capture and execution?" Jaina asked.

Marcus looked pensive then nodded toward Nihlus's shotgun that was still clutched in dead turian's hand. "Not if he was holding his weapon."

"That would mean someone snuck up on him," Jaina pointed out, her tone clearly voicing her disbelief to that scenario.

"I doubt it too," Marcus said. "A Spectre wouldn't be that kind of an amateur to let that happen."

Jaina bit the inside of her cheek, disconcerting thoughts floating up to the surface.

"That would mean he was offed by someone he knew," she said slowly.

Marcus could only agree with her. He was silent for a moment until they heard a slight clutter that came from where a group of large containers and crates stood.

They all pointed their weapons toward the source, while Marcus and Jaina switched to thermal detection display of their visors.

"Come out!" Marcus barked roughly as he sighted the heat of a crouching human form behind crates.

A man slowly rose, holding his hands up.

"Alright, don't shoot!" he spoke quickly. "I'm human! I hid behind these crates when the attack came! Look, my name is Powel, I work here at the spaceport."

"There are human bodies around here," Ashley spoke with suspicion as she nodded toward another couple of human corpses not too far from there. Her eyes narrowed at him. "How come you're the only one who managed to hide behind these crates?"

"Look, I was already here when the attack came, okay?" he said as he lowered his hands. "I hid here to take a fucking nap during work hours, what do you care?"

"You lazy fuck –" Ashley started, before Marcus interrupted her:

"Lay it off, Chief," he said coolly. "It's not our concern what other people do with their time and money."

"Yes sir," Ashley replied with a lot less heat to her voice.

"What interests me," Marcus continued, "is what did you see happen here. The attack was hours in the lasting by that time, so you were obviously awake by that time. I need to know what happened to that turian over there."

Powel sighed, looking uneasily at the corpse, then back at Marcus's masked visage, licking his lips.

"Didn't saw it, exactly," he said slowly as he leaned forward onto the crate. "But I heard it all. That turian? He was your friend or something?"

"He was on our team, yes," Jaina clarified simply.

"Yeah, well," Powel took a deep breath and huffed. "See, when the attack came I was here, just hoping to stay alive. They were everywhere! I couldn't see them, but I figured they were mechs from the weird electronic sound they were letting. Then suddenly, I hear a voice ordering them around! And make no mistake: that voice was turian!"

"You sure?" Jaina squinted at him.

"Positive!" Powel replied. "It's that metallic flange in their voices – it stood out like teeth on a vorcha, you couldn't miss it!"

"And the geth were listening to him?" Kaidan asked in disbelief.

"Geth? Is that what they were?" Powel asked. "Damn! Uh, yeah, they were obeying him. As I was saying, he was around doling out orders to them."

"Did he say anything that stood out?" Marcus asked intently. "Something that wasn't simple military command?"

"Uh… yeah, there was something," Powel said slowly, thinking. "You know that new excavation site over there? Well, one of the geth spoke to him that they've found this beacon. Then this turian said to take it to the docking bay. That's over there on the far side. I remember that they did return with cargo – I could hear the sound of a hover trailer. He didn't mention anything else other than giving orders. The geth left to do as he told them, but he stayed around. It was then that your friend came. Nihlus – that's how the other turian called him."

"What happened next?" Jaina prompted.

"Well, your friend called him by name: Saren. He wanted to know what Saren was doing here since, apparently, this wasn't his mission. Saren told him he was sent by the Council to help him. Your friend then let his guard down – he started talking about the situation, how things were bad, and about that time I hear – BANG! I heard Saren leaving, and that was when the geth came back. A few minutes later I hear these sounds of battle, thinking an entire Alliance platoon was blasting its way toward this place. Imagine my surprise when all I saw was you four."

Jaina turned to Marcus.

"If this Saren claimed he was sent by the Council, and Nihlus believed him, then he might be a Spectre," she said grimly.

"We should take this to the Council then," Kaidan provided.

"Not gonna hold any weight," Marcus shook his head. "The war trauma clause can make this evidence inadmissible. We have no recording of voice, nor video."

"Yeah, you do!" Powel spoke quickly, then pointed to a corner of the building. "The entire spaceport is surrounded by a security system on an independent powergrid!"

Marcus quickly looked that way, zooming in with his helmet optics, and saw a small broad-view camera that could be missed entirely. He quickly activated his omnitool and scanned the device from the distance. It was in working order and transmitting.

"The cameras only record visual, but they feed to security offices," Powel continued. "It's on the side where they took the beacon. You can get the recording there, and see that all that I told you is true! You're going to fight those bastards, right?"

"We are," Marcus spoke. "You should clear out while you can. We saw a few civilians up on the hill, over there. They have weapons, and could give you a better chance of survival."

"Yeah, that must be Carson," Powel said. "I sold him those grenades I heard exploding all the way from over here about three months ago. Good thing he had them."

"Wait!" Ashley said with her eyes widened. "Are you telling me that you're The Smuggler? The guy who provides illegal weapons to half the city?!"

Powel frowned at that, then shrugged. "Yeah, of course, everybody knows that. Captain Luciano knew that. It's not like I did it for some major profit; the people need to be able to protect themselves out here in the Verge."

Ashley couldn't hide her disbelief.

"That's not the point!" she yelled out. "It shouldn't be your job to protect yourselves, but the job of the Alliance to protect you instead!"

Powel grimaced at her as if she sprouted horns.

"Well, no offence to your devotion, miss, but your Alliance has proven time and again that they can't do squat when it comes to protecting its colonies," Powel retorted pointedly, then spread his arms. "And this particular case just drives the nail in your coffin. Just look around you! You had a whole battalion down here, armored vehicles and all, and they just steamrolled right over you. You didn't even see them coming! Your early warning systems have utterly failed in their jobs, and you want us to rely on _you_? Thanks, but no thanks! We're not putting our faith into someone who's not even able to defend himself. Besides, us colonists are not morons out to start gang wars with those weapons; we know we need to rely on each other out here! That's why we want these weapons, that's the reason I provide them with weapons, and I will keep doing so whether you like it or not. Captain Luciano knew that, and that's why he let me continue."

Powel vented the air out of his lungs, then continued:

"Look, some of these crates and containers contain weapons; I can help you with them."

"I think we're stocked up just fine," Jaina raised her hand.

Powel grinned maniacally. "Oh, no, I'm not talking about ordinary guns. I have something even better," he said with a glint in his eye, then motioned for them to following as he ran to the large shipping container that was parked nearby. He punched in the code, pulled the lever, and opened the doors to show a Triton walker.

"Holy shit!" Ashley exclaimed.

"You smuggle walker mechs?" Kaidan asked in utter astonishment, measuring the shabby-looking man up and down.

"What?! No, are you crazy?!" Powel exclaimed as he looked at Kaidan as if he sprouted horns. "These mechs are military stuff; I just know they came this morning! There are four of them in these containers. They were supposed to go to the 212th, and they're all yo –"

"LOOK OUT!" Jaina yelled out suddenly as she pushed Powel away from them, and erected a massive biotic bubble around them all as a single missile slammed into it, with other missiles approaching rapidly.

"Honeeeeyyy?!" Jaina called with concern.

Marcus did his thing with tiny warp barriers, causing missiles to detonate as the rest of the squad dove for cover. He raised his rifle along with Kaidan and Ashley, putting down suppressive fire toward the distant geth troops that were advancing their way, until Jaina crouched into a sniping position behind the fence, and began picking them off.

"Williams, into that Triton, now!" Marcus roared as he sent short bursts from his rifle toward the advancing geth.

"Yes, sir!" Ashley shouted, then ran into the container and hopped into the closest Triton's seat.

The cockpit canopy closed down, with combat HUD immediately popping out. The large turbine on the walker's back spun into action with a rising whine, and as the interface in the cockpit showed maximum power, Ashley grabbed the controls and the combat walker exited the container.

"Eat this, tin cans!" Ashley shouted out, wrinkling her nose.

 _Whiiiiiiirrrrr-BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!_

A hailstorm of high-caliber rounds rained down on the geth from the Triton's minigun, followed by a launch of a guided missile that destroyed the cover geth took to hiding behind. The walker moved steadily forward in large strides, its shields shrugging off lesser geth rounds, while the rest of the team moved behind it, Marcus taking care to protect it with his micro-warps against incoming missiles, and Jaina taking shots of opportunity against larger geth.

As they reached the far side, they encountered stairs and elevated catwalks and bridges from which geth were shooting down at them. Without any ado, Ashley activated the mech's thrusters, launching the machine into the air, arcing down onto the catwalk, and landing right on top of a couple of geth units that were there, crushing them under her feet.

"Daym, this is fun!" she crooned with a grin that threatened to split her face in half, before trailing her gun to the other geth and depressing the machinegun trigger.

The rest of the team stormed up the stairs and into the walkways, giving what little support was needed as Ashley's walker crossed the bridge, all the while pounding the geth mercilessly, not giving them chance to regroup.

She continued down that path, demolishing the geth until she reached the balcony overlooking the docking area, and spotted a large cylindrical device lying down on the floor. And she stopped cold.

"Uh, Commander?" she called out through the comm, her voice laced with panic. "Do you know how to disarm a nuclear bomb?"

"Don't worry about it," Marcus said with absolute cool as he approached the device. "You just worry about shooting."

"Y-yes, sir," she replied with a gulp.

As Ashley returned to gunning down the few remaining geth and humanoid husks that accompanied them, Marcus raised his omnitool and scanned the bomb. The device was straightforward, without any hidden traps; he figured the geth didn't have much time, nor were they expecting there would be anyone left to disarm the device.

He used his omnitool to bypass the active power flow, and then disabled the specific circuitry, finishing with unhooking the few wires.

"All done!" he called just as the sounds of firefight ended.

"Area clear!" Jaina called out.

"And, there's the beacon!" Ashley said with satisfaction as she punched the command to open the cockpit canopy. She jumped out, then turned around to look appreciatively at it. "Wish we had you five hours ago," she spoke to the mech ruefully.

The team descended the stairs to the large platform, approaching the beacon and scanning the perimeter. The beacon glowed brightly, and visible waves of energy were emanating from it.

"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up," Ashley spoke as she took a few steps closer to the beacon.

Marcus punched in a code, then made a comm link to their ship.

"Normandy, we've secured the beacon," he said. "We need a pickup at our coordinates."

A sudden pulse of an activating mass effect field interrupted whatever he was going to say next.

His head shot toward the beacon with an alert frown, only to see Ashley being pulled toward the obelisk and desperately trying to stop her slide.

He raised his hand, channeled his biotics, and yanked her out and away from the field.

"Nobody approaches it!" he ordered brusquely as he circled it at a safe distance while Ashley was raising herself from the ground in shock.

He activated all of the sensors that his suit had, and watched the overlay the HUD was displaying. He raised his omnitool and made a few sweeps before his HUD blinked a warning indicator against the beacon.

"Ahh, dammit, it's not only active; it's overloading!" he growled.

The beacon's integrated mass effect fields were burning through energy reserves at an alarming rate, sending off EM waves, and raising the heat of integral components beyond what any piece of electronic would call safe, and it was approaching critical _fast_.

He quickly tapped a few commands on his omnitool, sending out another sweep across the beacon, collecting structure data, then once more as he corrected the second sweep with new frequencies, drawing the complete picture.

"Kaidan, Jaina, get over here!" he called the two. "Omni-tools, now!"

The two raised their wrists to his and synched their omnitools as Marcus sent them a stream of data.

"Kaidan, maintain a dampening wave on the beacon using that frequency," he said. "Jaina, begin with the energy drain. Keep alternating with the phase variance I gave you."

As the two proceeded to do so, Marcus made a couple more quick sideway sweeps with his omnitool, monitoring what it was telling him, altered the few parameters, and then raised his omnitool high and slowly began lowering it as the active signal from his omnitool began sweeping across the beacon.

As his arm lowered, the active electric force of the three external sources gently disrupted the energy flow within the beacon, depriving it of the energy that was trapped in a loop of dangerous power increase.

The massive explosive overload never happened.

The bright green waves that the beacon emanated gently subsided and the beacon powered down, shutting down the remaining lights.

"You can stop now," Marcus said, and the other two teammates cut of their phased field signals.

"Was that a smart thing to do, Commander?" Kaidan asked with a worried voice. "The Council was very eager to have this beacon active. If we've shut it down now, we may never turn it back on!"

"No, we will," Marcus stated confidently. "Looking at this thing now, I know that this beacon wasn't actually powered on when they found it; it must've been one of the scientists that accidentally powered it on – which means if they did it, the process can be repeated in a more controlled environment."

"How can you be so sure, sir?" Ashley asked. "I mean – weren't the Protheans, like – super-advanced?"

"They may have been advanced, but they were bound by laws of physics, Chief," Marcus replied as he walked slowly around the beacon, checking the thing up and down. "If you want to produce enough energy to feed something with active mass effect fields for fifty thousand years, then you'd need energy reserves that couldn't possibly fit into a device this small. Period."

"So, why did it went into overload?" Kaidan asked as he too looked the beacon over.

"The thing was degraded with time," Marcus replied, shrugging. "It's as simple as that. Some of the circuitry went haywire, making it overload on energy and heat. Should be fine now, though."

"Makes sense, I suppose," Kaidan acquiesced, nodding.

"Jaina," Marcus called out to her as he pointed up toward the spaceport control center. "Why don't you go up there and see if you can find that security camera feed that showed Nihlus's death?"

"Right," she said, then turned and trotted up the stairs toward the entrance.

"You really think this Saren or the geth didn't destroy those records, sir?" Kaidan asked.

"Remember the nuke we defused on the way, Lieutenant?" Marcus pointed out. "He did prepare to destroy those files, alright."

Realization dawned on Kaidan's face. "Ah," he said.

Just as she did, they heard the distant sound of spaceship engines, and the Normandy rounded the nearby hill slope and approached the docking bay in a quick swoop, positioning next to the landing pad.

"Normandy," Marcus called. "The package is hot, and I mean literally! We need to let it cool off before transport."

"Roger that, ground team," Captain Anderson replied. "What's your team status?"

"We lost Nihlus, sir," Marcus replied.

There was a pause.

"That complicates things," Anderson said finally. "Come aboard, Commander; we have things to discuss."

* * *

 **REVIEW RESPONSES:**

 **Indecisive Bob** – Thanks for your reviews. And yes, you've actually guessed right that one of my goals here is to patch up the holes in the story of ME1. On another note, my story is not the only one on the Fanfiction that features a romantically involved MShep and FemShep. I've read a decently written one; it's just that for the life of me, I cannot remember what the story's name was.

 **CaedmonCousland** – Thanks for the large review message. I like having them far more than simple "I liked it, keep up" – and that goes as an encouragement to anyone who reads this and wishes to leave a review. As for your thought on camera recordings that (and I quote you) _"…_ _there is always the risk of those videos being hacked or stolen…"_ , you need to realize that government field operatives use camcorders regardless of that. The secret services know what they're doing and why they're doing it. It's something called 'leverage'.

 **Expect next chapter during the course of the following week.**


	4. Chapter 4 - The Aftermath

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _Somewhat shorter chapter this time around. I keep writing this as one big continuous story in one big Word document, so it is only later that I form a chapter from one logical section of the big story. It means that some chapters might have 4-5k words, and some might have 9-10k. So, that's just a heads-up._

 _As a RESPONSE TO REVIEWS:_

 _Thanks, people! As far as the thing that_ _ **Indecisive Bob, OBSERVER01,**_ _and_ _ **idiot**_ _ **. of .**_ _ **wanderlust**_ _noticed pertaining to the Beacon not exploding or implanting data in Shepard's head, I thought – hell, why do I have to stick to the template? Bioware didn't intend Shepard to be defined by the Beacon, but by the choices; the Beacon was only a McGuffin needed for the Game. So – why couldn't he use his biotics to yank Ash out of there? In any case, the later chapters will depict the consequences of everything that happened on Eden Prime._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 22.11.2016.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

 **Chapter 4 – The Aftermath**

Captain Anderson watched in silence the video of Nihlus's assassination that the spaceport's security feeds had caught, with Marcus and Jaina standing in the comm room next to him, observing.

The vid had a poor quality to it. Not only was the source some cheap security cam, but the glare of the sun was also playing a major part in obscuring the people of interest – their bodies shadowed and their silhouettes outlined by a glaring orange band of sun's shine.

Still, the images and sequence of events that the video provided were undeniable. The unknown enemy was obviously a turian even though his face was obscured by shadow, and when Nihlus had appeared, everything that followed had only corroborated Powel the Smuggler's story. The short verbal exchange that ensued between Nihlus and the other turian that Powel claimed was named Saren was obvious; the fact that the two men knew each other could not be denied either. They all clearly saw how Nihlus behaved with ease around the other turian… how he turned his back on him… how the other turian casually raised his weapon when Nihlus couldn't see – the muzzle obviously under Nihlus's shields – and unloaded a round straight into the back of Nihlus's head. There was not so much as a flinch from the other unknown turian.

The turian was soon joined by a large group of geth before he moved away toward the docks, and the video soon showed Marcus's team blazing down from the nearby rise and wreaking havoc on the geth, ending up with the exchange they had with Powel.

Anderson then rewound the video back to play out the scene of Nihlus's murder and paused at the moment the other turian turned toward the general direction of the camera after he had done the deed. Marcus and Jaina could clearly see the angry frown that marred captain's face and shared a look.

"That turian," Anderson spoke gravely. "That _is_ Saren."

"I assume that from your tone that you know this Saren guy, sir?" Jaina asked with a raised eyebrow.

Anderson merely nodded.

"How positive can you be that it's the man you know?" Marcus asked, then motioned toward the screens. "The video's been cleared up as much as possible by our techs, but there's still no clear outline of their faces."

"Oh, I know Saren," Anderson growled, not taking his eyes off the screen. "You could say he and I have a history. This turian's way of handling himself, his body language, his movements… I could recognize it anywhere. The encounter I had with him long ago has left a sufficiently bad memory for me to memorize it well."

He took a deep, calming breath, then continued:

"This is bad business. Saren Arterius is a Council Spectre. One of the best they have. And he hates humanity. He was on Shanxi in '57. He lost his older brother in that war, one General Desolas Arterius."

There was a moment of pause as Marcus and Jaina shared another meaningful look.

"If that's the case, then we have a big problem," Jaina spoke. "A human-hating rogue Spectre that has aligned himself with AIs, and is rampaging across human colonies. Not only do we have no idea why he's doing it, but he's protected by the Council, and we have next to no evidence to prove his guilt."

"We have the smuggler's testimony on video, and we have the security camera recording," Anderson said calmly. "That is a good piece of evidence to start."

Marcus raised an eyebrow, tilting his head dubiously.

"I'm no lawyer, but the way I see it, that evidence holds no weight," he said. "Powel is a smuggler, which makes it his word against a respected Council Spectre, and the recording of the murder is not clear enough to show it's Saren."

"Do not discount these things so lightly, Commander," Anderson said with certainty. "The evidence might not be rock solid, but trust me when I say it's sufficient enough to cause reasonable doubt, and that is a very powerful thing in galactic judiciary proceedings."

"True, but this is not a civic law we're facing here; this is intergalactic politics," Jaina pointed out. "Things like laws are disregarded there. The only thing that matters is political power trade. Do you really think this evidence would be sufficient for the Council to revoke Saren's Spectre status?"

Anderson made a few steps around the room, and conceded to her point:

"It's a bit too optimistic for that to happen, true… but this puts Council into the spotlight. A big spotlight. They cannot openly deny and try to bury this; the Galactic community would flay them alive! So, they will try to prove their top agent's innocence. Now _that_ is our big break. It will put Saren into the spotlight. He would be tracked, and his actions – both current and previous – would be closely investigated. He couldn't move openly; he would be bogged down."

"Which buys us time," Jaina said as she looked up at Marcus. "We could use it to find solid evidence, or to discover why he attacked the colony in the first place."

"It was clear he did it for that beacon," Anderson stated with certainty.

"Are you sure it was just for the beacon?" Marcus asked. "I know we saw his geth carrying the beacon to the spaceport, so it was of some interest, but Saren just left the damn thing there. Seems odd to just leave your plunder if you already went through all that trouble."

"That's because he didn't need the beacon anymore, Commander," Anderson spoke gravely. "I know how Saren thinks. He views the universe in a matter of usage: if something is useful, he will keep it; if not, he will discard it without a second thought. And trust me when I say that he left the beacon because he got everything he needed from it."

Marcus shared a significant look with Jaina, just as she spoke up, "That field that Williams got caught in…"

"Yes, but I think it is better that we didn't let that field do whatever it was supposed to do," he said. "The components were overcharged, and we didn't have any Prothean experts with us."

"I agree," Anderson said. "You did the right thing by shutting it down, Marcus, rather than destroying it. The Citadel has the best experts in the field of Prothean technologies, and I'm sure they will find a way to keep the beacon safely active."

"But will they let us use it to find out what Saren was after?"

"If you become a Spectre, they will," Anderson replied with certainty.

"And what do you think my chances are when it comes to that now that Nihlus is dead?" Marcus asked.

Anderson sighed, then motioned them to sit on chairs that were lined along the circular walls of the comm room.

"The chances of you becoming a Spectre were all but assured once Nihlus put your name forth," he said. "His death presents a problem, but the comm and vid records from the ground relieve you of any blame. In fact, the Council will want to hide the fact that Nihlus made a rookie mistake when he let his guard down like that. That leaves us with the beacon. It was retrieved, and it's undamaged. We'll have to convince them that we didn't shut it down for good."

"Not a problem with that," Marcus spoke up. "Allow me to talk, and if the Salarian Councilor is anything like the rest of his kind, it will be easy to convince him – one tech savvy to another. The other Councilors can't object that."

"If what you say is true, then that means we have achieved our mission parameters, and the Council will be more than happy, believe me." Anderson went quiet for a second before he continued. "But once the Council sees that part of the security vid where you plow your way through the entire geth platoon in front of the spaceport, wrecking them left and right?" he paused and smiled broadly, shaking his head. "They are going to be awed. And if they try to make that in the form of public hearing – as they most certainly like to do – they might as well publicize that they're biased against us if they were to decide against making you a Spectre."

Marcus snorted mirthlessly. "Easy for them to just watch and be amazed at the few good bits," he said. "The situation planetside was fubar. There was a whole damn battalion of Alliance troops protecting the spaceport area, and they were gutted in the first strike. By the time we got there, the ones who were fighting the geth were civilian militia."

"Has there been any word from the planet, Captain?" Jaina asked.

Anderson sighed.

"I won't lie to you," he said. "Almost eight hundred Alliance soldiers were lost, as well as all thirty armored vehicles and the trident flight squadron. The flotilla that guarded the planet was sliced through with supreme firepower. We lost eight ships today. As for the orbital defense platforms, they took almost no damage – they were bypassed entirely; so much for their usefulness against pirates and slavers… and spaceport GARDIAN turrets were taken out fast. Way too fast. The civilian death toll was far worse."

"What is the Alliance going to do about it?" Marcus asked.

"Repair and rebuild," Anderson shrugged. "But if you're asking me what they are going to do to prevent it from happening, or retaliating, for that I have no answer. The truth is that we are spread too thin defending our colonies throughout the Verge. We have too few ships, and too few men; and this thing with Eden Prime will make the people reluctant to enlist. The Alliance will have to do some serious reviewing when it comes to its system and doctrine. In the meantime, _we_ – meaning the Normandy – must do our part to mitigate the damage."

"So, what are we doing?" Jaina asked.

"A lot of military gear was left on the surface, and no troops to guard them," Anderson said. "The SSV Belgrade has already arrived to provide relief, but they can't take the heavy gear with them since the cruiser can't land."

"You're talking about those Triton mechs, aren't you?" Jaina queried. Anderson nodded in response.

"I've had Sergeant Miller's team take two Tritons; we couldn't spare any room for more. They'll be our responsibility for the conceivable future. Who knows – maybe we'll find some use for them. We've also picked up a number of geth infantry weapons that will be studied. Belgrade's troops will pick up whatever is left, which I doubt will be much once scavenging picks up.

"And then there's Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. I'm keeping her around," he said firmly. "Her unit was destroyed, so all that she's left with is to wait to be redeployed, and soldiers as good as she is are hard to come by. I've already made arrangements for her to be redeployed as part of the ground team with us here."

"Well, she certainly seems very tenacious and driven," Jaina commented. "And she can pilot the Triton mechs, as we've seen, so that's certainly a boon. She'll certainly be a decent addition to the Normandy."

"I'm glad you see it that way, Commander," Anderson said with satisfaction, then stood up, being quickly mirrored by the other two. "We'll have our jobs cut out for us. As for me, I have a report to make. Dismissed!"

The other two saluted and walked out of the comm room.

Anderson waited until they left, then turned to the console and punched in a few commands. The large screen changed to show the video from Marcus's helmet recording. He rewound the progress bar to the segment he wanted, and pressed 'play'.

" _Well, no offence to your devotion, miss, but your Alliance has proven time and again that they can't do squat when it comes to protecting its colonies, and this particular case just drives the nail in your coffin. Just look around you! You had a whole battalion down here, armored vehicles and all, and they just steamrolled right over you. You didn't even see them coming! Your early warning systems have utterly failed in their jobs, and you want us to rely on you? Thanks, but no thanks! We're not putting our faith into someone who's not even able to defend himself. Besides, us colonists are not morons out to start gang wars; we know we need to rely on each other out here. That's why we want these weapons, that's the reason I provide them with weapons, and I will keep doing so whether you like it or not. Captain Luciano knew that, and that's why he let me continue."_

Anderson paused the video, a grim frown never leaving his face. He spoke to the VI.

"Compose a message to Admiral Stephen Hackett. Copy the selected video segment and attach it to the note. Message text begins:

"I have attached a video clip in this message that originated from Commander Marcus Shepard's helm recording device. The man you'll see is one of Eden Prime attack survivors. You need to hear it. I knew the situation was like he describes, but I never knew it was this bad. This attack just drove the point in. We're not able to defend our own colonies, for Christ's sake! And Eden Prime is practically at our doorstep."

Anderson sighed heavily, then continued:

"We need to change our doctrine, Stephen, because the way things are, it might just be a matter of time before something worse happens."

"Message text ends."

Anderson let out a deep, weary sigh, and pushed the 'send' button.

* * *

Marcus separated from Jaina when they walked out of the comm room and into the CIC. She took her XO's post in captain's absence, with Marcus hanging around long enough to see where the ship was at.

The Normandy had left Eden Prime after a few hours that were dedicated to assisting relief operations in whatever limited capacity it could. The ship was now burning hard toward one of the primary relays present in the cluster – the one that connected the Exodus Cluster directly to Serpent Nebula.

Assessing their location on the starmap, he left the CIC and descended down onto the crew deck, promptly angling toward the mess hall to grab himself something to eat; the biotic usage did have its side effects. Using the specialized nutrient cocktails during the combat that his suit could inject directly into his bloodstream was only an emergency stopgap. The human body still had the need to draw on energy from the digestive tract. Jaina had used significantly less biotics than he did, so a protein bar was enough for her for the time being, but he had burned hard down there. He needed his stomach filled.

A microwaved military ration of beef stew that he ate was not as bad as some other military foodstuffs. The meat was real, and the vegetable sauce was spiced up properly to hide the blandness. As he was halfway through the meal, another figure carrying a tray of food approached from the other side.

"Hey, Commander," Ashley spoke as he looked up at her. "Mind if I join you?"

Marcus motioned her welcomingly with his hand to sit across from him as he chewed his food.

"Nice of you to join us on the Normandy, Chief," he said as he swallowed. "How do you feel being assigned here?"

"Are you kidding?" she said enthusiastically, her eyes wide. "Being posted on Alliance's most advanced ship is like prestige!"

Marcus chuckled at her eager straightforwardness. It was refreshing compared to some of the awkward reservedness that some personnel tended to assume unintentionally.

"Well, the Captain has had the opportunity to see you in action thanks to our helm camcorders," Marcus spoke between the bites. "He's pretty impressed by your performance, and I have to say that so am I. The way you handled that Triton showed initiative and quick thinking. This ship's ground team needs that."

"Thanks, Commander," Ashley replied looking down in what Marcus clearly saw was slight bashfulness. She then looked up, her speech uncertain. "If I may ask, sir – if I understood it correctly, Commander Jaina Shepard is your wife?"

Marcus nodded as he chewed his food.

"So, how come the two of you are assigned to the same ship?" she asked, squinting. "The regs are clear about married couples having to be on separate posts, yet both of you are N7."

Marcus waved with his fork.

"I am not posted to the Normandy," he said. "Jaina is the ship's XO, but I'm field N7 agent, and the Normandy is merely transporting me."

"Huh, I see," Ashley nodded ponderously. "It's one of the methods in which Spec Ops N7s operate, huh?"

"That's right," he replied. "For the lack of a better term, the Normandy served as my taxy for the purposes of this mission. Things might change once this whole deal with the Prothean beacon is resolved."

"Right," she said slowly. "And on that note, I have to thank you for saving my ass again when that thing began pulling me in. That was twice in one day."

"Any time, Ash; that's what brothers and sisters in arms are for. Though, one might start to think you like being bounced around by biotic throws," Marcus jabbed with a smirk.

"You won't be hearing any complaint from me, sir," Ashley replied in all seriousness. "I'm glad I did not have to find out what that field would do to me if it pulled me all the way in! And if someone without biotics tried to rescue me, they would've likely been pulled in instead."

"Which is why I trust you'll remember to be more careful next time when you deal with unknown artifacts or technology," he said. "Now, I'm not scolding you here, Ash – any one of us could have been pulled into that field – but at least now you know that curiosity killed the cat."

"Don't worry, sir," she replied empathically. "That lesson sure is learned!"

Marcus raised his eyes when another person joined them.

"Kaidan," Marcus greeted the man.

"Commander," he replied as he placed his plate of food on the desk and lowed himself on the chair. His face was scrunched up in a frown, and he was squinting.

"Something wrong, Kaidan?" Marcus asked as he examined the man's expression.

"Ah… nothing serious, sir," he replied. "It's just a migraine from biotic use. I did maintain that barrier for the entire duration of the mission; haven't done that in a while, so my L2 is flaring a bit. I'm gonna go take a short nap after this."

"You have an L2 in your head?" Marcus queried as he leaned with his elbows against the desk and took a sip of his water cup.

"Yeah, but I'm the lucky one," he replied. "All I get are migraines every now and then. I figure human biotics are rare enough that the Alliance is willing to have us as active soldiers despite the side effects."

"That's true," Marcus said. "We're a whole new factor on the battlefield. Some of the old tactics had to be abandoned when we were faced with the existence of the biotics."

"I've always wondered what biotics feel like," Ashley spoke up with interest. "I mean, it must come naturally to you, but…"

"It's not easy to explain, unfortunately," Marcus spoke as Kaidan ate. "Biotics are developed while we're in the uterus. We grow with them, so it's like having another limb."

"Yeah, and it tires you out like a real limb if you use it too much, except that it's in your mind," Kaidan added. "It drains you of your energy, makes it hard to run or even move after using it for a while. Makes you hungry as hell, too!"

"Which reminds me," Marcus spoke up as he looked at Kaidan. "Since you're permanently assigned to the Normandy, talk to Jaina to fix you up with a nutrient cocktail injector in your omni-tool if nothing else. One shot of that counts as a full meal and the effect is noticeable in seconds. It's a game changer in prolonged combat."

"I'm gonna be fixing him up with that before we even reach the Citadel," Jaina's voice came from the side as she sauntered her way to the table and sat next to Marcus.

"Thanks, Commander, I sure am going to take you up on that," Kaidan said appreciatively.

"So, what's it like when you channel your biotics?" Ashley asked with interest, looking around at the three people. "I mean – if it's not like a private thing or something…"

"No, not at all."

"It's like there's something inside of your head, just sitting there," Jaina said, circling the side of her head with her finger. "It does nothing until you concentrate on it, and then it spreads like a tingle through your brain."

"But how do you send something flying?" she asked. "I've seen many biotics waving their arms around…"

"That's because of how hard it is to actually teach your brain how to use those damn eezo nodes that are spread throughout it," Jaina replied with a smirk as she crossed her legs. "Your brain can feel it, but it doesn't actually know what the hell it's supposed to do with the thing. So, you must teach it by using mnemonics – also colloquially known as waving your hands while you concentrate on what you want to do. Eventually, your brain will rearrange its internal pathways – learn, so to speak – so that it activates your biotics if you move in a specific way while you concentrate on that tingling in your mind."

"Like muscle memory in martial arts!" Ashley exclaimed.

"Exactly," Jaina replied. "Some people can do it without mnemonics, though – like Marcus here."

"You can, too," he said. "Don't sell yourself short, Jay."

She just shrugged, smirking. "Not as good as the teacher," she said, tapping his shoulder as she leaned into him, then added, "Yet, anyway."

"I just had a head start," he said. "A bit of sleight of hand on the streets of L.A. when I was a kid."

She humpf-ed, smirking. "Showoff," she said.

"I take it that skill is a good thing?" Ashley queried.

"Imagine maintaining a suppressive fire with an assault rifle while launching biotic detonations straight into the enemies midst," Kaidan replied.

"Daymn!" she exclaimed, then looked at Marcus. "You can do two things at the same time like that?"

"Yeah, but have you ever tried writing with both hands at the same time, Chief?" Marcus countered. "Neither one will do the intended job properly."

"Huh… I guess I see where you're coming from."

"Don't sell yourself short, Marc," Jaina spoke admonishingly. "Your 'ambidextrous writing' may not win calligraphy contests, but the message is damn well clear to the enemy."

"We'll never know if it's true or not," Kaidan spoke up. "No enemies were left on Eden Prime to comment about that message they received."

A few chuckles spread across the table.

"And here's to that," Marcus spoke as he raised his cup of water.

" _Here-here_ " they echoed and clinked their cups together.

* * *

It was early morning by general time zone.

Most of the Normandy's crew was still at their nighttime rest, with only a few crucial people maintaining systems as the ship was in flight.

Marcus was at the small starboard observation deck, gazing into the void of space that was being broken by blue streaks of light from the FTL. He was not thinking of anything, really. The barely perceptible hum that permeated the space seemed to lull him into an out-of-body state, and the distant stars and constellations seemed to call out to him.

The door opened with a hiss, and he turned his head half-heartedly to look behind from the corner of his eye.

"Can't sleep?" he heard his wife's voice as she approached the sofa he was sitting on.

"I've rested up sufficiently," he replied.

He felt her hand brush across his shoulders as she circled the edge of the sofa, trailing down his arm that rested against the backrest. He looked up at her as she stepped in front of him and descended into his lap, slowly, almost carefully, never breaking eye contact as she seated herself, resting one hand on his shoulder and the other on his broad chest.

He placed his paw against the back of her neck and brought her in for a hungry kiss that sent shivers down her spine and heat down his body as they drank from each-other like they were parched of water for months. Her body molded against his, sinking deeper into the embrace as his other hand trailed down to her hip, pulling her in.

They parted after a long while, their breathing heavy, lips wet, and her pink-hued cybernetic eyes never leaving his piercing blue gaze for a second. Little pecks ensued, sweet and soft, as he trailed his strong, calloused hands down her flanks, eliciting small cooing sounds from her throat.

They finally slowed down as she rested her forehead against his, their eyes closed and just basking in the fuzzy feeling of content, satisfied in this little act of intimacy they had managed to sneak away with.

She moved slowly, gently rubbing her nose against his as a tiny giggling sound involuntarily left her throat.

"All is right in the world," Marcus declared with a content sigh.

"All is right," she echoed in the same way.

"You know, I was thinking," Marcus spoke with a casual tone. "In a year or two, we say goodbye to all of this – the Alliance, the Council, the Universe – and go to some verdant world far away, where nobody goes to… have six or seven of those pesky little parasites – what was it they call them? Kids?"

Jaina was grinning and shaking her head gently in amusement. He continued:

"I was thinking four beautiful girls and three strapping boys… you could be the cool badass mom, and I could be the terrifying dad that glares at his daughters' boyfriends as he demonstrates the accuracy of his hunting rifle when they come for dinner…"

By this time, Jaina was shaking from trying to contain her laughter as she buried her face in his shoulder.

"And we wouldn't be living in an ordinary prefab – nope, no how!" he stated. "We'd live in this beautiful lodge at the edge of forested mountains, right next to the foaming mountain stream. I'd go hunting, you'd do your sculpturing with the jackhammer…"

"God, that only happened that one time!" she laughed as she turned her head skyward.

He chuckled with her.

"And we'd raise farm animals," he finished somberly. "We'd have some sheep and goats; I hear they do well in mountain climates… And all would be right in the world."

Jaina was blissfully silent as she listened to his story, gently stroking the side of his neck with her thumb.

"I'd like that… sounds like a plan," she said sincerely, then gave him a stern look from above. "But I want a pair of big-ass GARDIAN turrets hidden underground right next to the house. This future badass mom won't be having her kids at slaver's crosshairs!"

"Bad-ass future mom?" he said with a smirk, then gave her a sharp swat on her shapely rump. "It looks like a nice-ass future mom to me!"

"Marcus Shepard," she said in mock haughty and stern voice. "The first chance we get time together off this ship, you will be taking responsibility for manhandling my assets during a time and place where further actions are inadvisable!"

"Oh?" he kept his eyes locked with hers' as he maintained that cocky smirk. "You mean to say that I am to back up my actions with something more?"

She lowered her face millimeters away from his. " _Significantly_ more," she squeezed out as mirthful lust raged in her eyes.

"Oh, but I don't think you'll be able to handle it, Mrs. Shepard," he retorted smugly.

She bit her lower lip and smiled devilishly.

"Is that a promise?" she asked with a grin as she felt something hard right at the place she was sitting at.

"Cross my heart and hope to cry," he replied cockily.

She stood up then, her eyes glinting down at him from behind her auburn bangs, and straightened her officer's uniform.

"I'll hold you up on that, Mr. Shepard," she replied calmly, then cleared her throat. "In the meantime… we'll be arriving at the Widow system in about an hour. You should be the one to oversee the handover of the beacon."

He nodded somberly. "I'll prepare."

"Alright then! Oh, and don't forget to be in the cockpit once we get there; the Citadel is a beautiful sight, you'll see!"

"I'll take your words to heart then," he replied as she moved to leave the room.

Marcus sighed deeply. He'd need a cold shower. A _very_ cold shower.

* * *

 **The next chapter will be a long one, so no exact promises as to when will it arrive, but shouldn't be later than about one week from now. Remember, I've already written a few chapters in advance, but I'm keeping a 'buffer', so I post a new chapter when I advance in overall story – so that I can make certain adjustments if the need arises.**


	5. Chapter 5 - The Hearing

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _Wasn't it always funny how Shepard and crew ran in full battle gear all over Presidium? And the C-Sec would be like: 'Oh, a heavily-armed krogan running around Presidium? Well, nothing wrong there! That hanar preacher over there looks shifty as fuck, though! Better go check it out…'_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 29.11.2016.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes – which will_ _ **definitely**_ _be coming in the future… if that wasn't clear enough already…_

 _Brace yourselves; this one's a long one…_

* * *

 **Chapter 5 – The Hearing**

There was something to be said about the effect the Citadel had on people who were seeing it for the first time like Marcus was. The clouds of the violet nebula that surrounded the massive station were obscuring the initial sight of it, but the brightness of the nebula's backdrop produced a shadowy outline of the station that could be seen as one approached it.

The ship would approach it, its passengers looking at the large shadow, straining to visualize what it was that they were seeing, until quite suddenly the ship would break the cloud cover and they would be surprised with the clear view of this massive structure's majesty.

Kaidan and Ashley were there as well. The two were being thoroughly awed at the sight, Ashley more vocally than Kaidan. Marcus was silent, however, schooling his mind not to be _too_ awed like some tourist.

"Look at the size of that ship!" Ashley exclaimed when she saw the Destiny Ascension.

"Yeah, well, the size isn't everything," Joker grumbled good-naturedly.

"What? Look at that monster! Its main gun could rip through shields of any ship in the Alliance fleet!"

"The ship is only as good as the crew that's serving it," Marcus spoke up. "I wonder how great their skills are."

"Asari dreadnoughts are captained by their Matriarchs," Kaidan said. "They are almost a thousand years old; they have several lifetimes of experience!"

"Maybe," Marcus conceded. "But every muscle atrophies if you don't exercise it regularly, Lieutenant – even skill. What combat actions did the Destiny Ascension participate in? And for that matter – what assignments did the Ascension have, other than sitting around the Citadel?"

There was silence as the words sunk in.

"Told you so," Joker quipped, and before anyone could shoot back, he began his communication with the Citadel Control.

Marcus left the cockpit and walked into the main area of the CIC, standing next to the elevated platform from where Anderson was monitoring and directing the Normandy's and crew's actions.

"Marcus, good that you're here," Anderson spoke as he descended the ramp and motioned Jaina to join them, too. "I'm going to be needing you prepared, along with everyone else that was on the ground team during the Eden Prime mission. That includes Chief Williams. As soon as we land, you'll be joining me, and we'll go directly to the Embassy."

"I thought I was to oversee the beacon's handover to the C-Sec," Marcus spoke.

"This is more important," Anderson replied. "Sergeant Miller will do the honors of handing over the beacon. Don't worry; the entirety of the Alliance docks is being riddled with armed military personnel acting as security; there will be no slip-ups here!"

"What's this all about, Captain?" Jaina asked.

"Ambassador Udina had been notified via comm of what had happened on Eden Prime," Anderson spoke as they filed into the elevator. "He assured me that he will secure us an audience with the Council to discuss this matter. All of you must be there as well as eyewitnesses, because you can be sure that the Councilors will pose questions to you, as well."

"Do you think we can convince them to help us?" Marcus asked in turn.

"That's politics, Commander," Anderson replied ruefully. "Fortunately for us, this is big. Really big! The Council might not be happy about it, but when it comes down to something like this, they are damn right obligated to listen to everything we have to say."

"We'll be ready, sir," Marcus said, and both he and Jaina quickly left to prepare for what was to come.

* * *

"Ambassador Udina," the asari Councilor Tevos spoke politely from the holographic projection. "We understand that there had been a development on one of your colonies."

"Our agents report that the colony came under attack late yesterday," The salarian Councilor, Valern, picked up. "Is this accurate?"

"It is, Councilors," Udina spoke, looking at all three of them. "That is the reason why I've contacted you. I wish to arrange an audience with you – one that would double as a hearing that would deal with the facts and implications of this attack."

"Indeed," turian Councilor, Sparatus, spoke with dissatisfaction evident in his voice. "I feel that a hearing would be most adequate, Ambassador, since the reports suggest that our own Spectre agent who was sent on a retrieval mission to Eden Prime is now dead. I really wish to hear how your Systems Alliance will justify allowing one of our agents to be killed in a pirate raid!"

"This was not made by pirates, Councilor," Udina spoke slowly, containing his anger. "The perpetrators were Geth, and as for your agent, Nihlus Kryik, he was assassinated by another turian, named Saren. We believe that he is the Spectre Saren Arterius."

"What?!" Sparatus exclaimed. "This is preposterous!"

"We've seen the initial reports that claim the assailants to be the Geth, Ambassador, but now this?" Valern spoke with skepticism. "The Geth have not been seen outside of the Perseus veil in almost three hundred years, and their territory is all the way in the Terminus Systems, and now you also claim that there was a Spectre with them?"

"Obviously, you understand our skepticism, Ambassador," Councilor Tevos picked up. "This could have very well been the work of mercenaries who used a great number of mechs in the front lines."

"And I would _really_ like to see on what grounds do you claim one of our best and most honored Spectres is working with the synthetics!" Sparatus added.

Udina, a seasoned politician no matter the fact that many disliked him, did not allow the cross-assault of the three Councilors to disrupt him.

"If you want to see that, as you so say, Councilor" he spoke slowly, "then, arrange a hearing, and review the evidence we have."

"I assure you, we will, Ambassador," Sparatus replied, his voice laced with contained anger. He turned to the asari and nodded firmly.

Tevos turned to look at Valern, and when the salarian gave his acquiescence, she turned to Udina and spoke:

"Very well, Ambassador. This Council will grant you an emergency audience and a hearing. You will receive further info on the time of the hearing once we confirm our schedule."

The three projections winked out of existence, and Udina sighed loudly, as he set his arms akimbo. He turned back toward the great chamber and saw Captain Anderson, who had arrived with his soldiers somewhere in the mid of the conversation with the Council.

"Anderson," Udina greeted him with a nod, then waved toward the fully armed and armored men and women. "Was there any particular need for you to bring half of your ship with you?"

"This was the ground team on Eden Prime, Ambassador," Anderson spoke as he looked at his people. "The Council will surely want to question them."

"There's that," Udina conceded.

"I see you've managed to secure an audience?"

"And you've certainly seen that they were not happy about it, either," he said. "Goes hand-in-hand with accusing their top Spectre of treason. I'm not gonna lie to you, this situation is complicated. Had Nihlus Kryik survived somehow, he could have pointed fingers at the perpetrator. With him dead, however, we'll have a much harder time exerting justice… and the Commander's candidacy in the Spectre ranks might be jeopardized, as well."

"We delivered the beacon unharmed, Ambassador," Anderson spoke. "Shepard did his duty; that must count a lot!"

"True, they won't be able to deny that," Udina replied. "But it still leaves us with the problem of a rogue Spectre that seems to be targeting human colonies!"

"What do you think the Council will do?"

Udina crossed his hands over his chest, then rubbed his mouth as he thought on it.

"The Council will not want for their top agent to appear bad, so believe it or not, the Council itself will definitely call an investigation into Saren's current actions and whereabouts so they could prove he was innocent," he replied after a moment. "They're probably doing it as we speak! The thing is, they'll also probably give the investigation a very limited time to find anything useful."

"They're probably just going to stop as soon as they find some kind of alibi as to the Saren's whereabouts at the moment of the attack," Marcus said.

"What you say makes sense, Commander," Udina said. "Even though that kind of evidence might be fabricated."

"They wouldn't stoop that low," Jaina said, frowning.

"Maybe not, but face matters a lot in public's opinion on political figures," Udina pointed out. "Never forget the grand scandals of the 20th and 21st century."

"They won't be able to cover it up this time, though," Anderson said confidently, slicing the air with his hand. "We have relevant video and audio evidence."

"True. I've already forwarded the things you've recorded to C-Sec," Udina replied.

"Can we trust that C-Sec won't play ball on Saren's team?" Jaina asked.

"We can," Udina replied. "The Executor Palin might not like humans, but he's a police officer through-and-through. He dislikes Spectres and their leeway to do things whatever way they please and wants to do things properly. They will verify the authenticity of the recordings properly."

There was a chime at Udina's personal terminal. The ambassador approached his desk and examined the message that has arrived.

"The Council has notified us of the time of the hearing," Udina announced, then nodded. "They say they've called for an investigation into Saren's activities, but the amount of time that's left for the investigation to find anything is ridiculously small! They're being blatantly obvious about not wanting to _truly_ investigate if their Spectre has gone rogue."

"Give us the time of the hearing," Anderson spoke, raising his omni-tool and being mirrored by both Marcus and Jaina. Udina tapped in a few commands, and a ping sounded from the other people's omnis.

"The location of the hearing will be the Citadel Tower. The Council had sent me authorizations for your entire ground team to join us up there; I've included them in the transfer. You should come with me, Anderson. There are some things we must prepare. We will meet up with the rest of you at the Tower at the designated time. My advice, though, is to be early; the Councilors wait for no one, and might just decide to start before schedule."

Anderson turned to his men.

"You have a bit of time," he said. "You have no further duties for today, so feel free to take a tour of the Presidium. Jaina has been here before, so she can show you around. Now, I know you have permits to carry arms, but I advise you to take off your armor while you're here, and only carry a sidearm."

"Yes, sir!" Marcus replied with a salute, then turned and left with the rest of his team.

"Come on," Jaina spoke up. "The Embassy has its own security offices where we can leave our gear. It's this way."

They exited the spacious and airy office and walked through the main hallway. There were several spacious offices behind glass walls on either side of this hallway, where numerous diplomatic officials and agents could be seen busy at their work stations. Once they passed the offices, there were two doors on either side, them turning to walk through ones on the right. The area they found themselves in was filled with numerous security officers and guards, security cam monitoring screens, and rooms with weapons lockers.

"I had no idea that our Embassy was this big!" Ashley spoke up. "I thought the Embassy was just one office where ambassador worked."

"All embassies are much larger than that, Chief," Jaina spoke with a smile on her face. "They have other employees and diplomats that work important jobs, and they have security offices like this one, too, and the upper floor has residences."

Ashley whistled. "Gives you a whole new perspective on things."

They were provided with lockers by one of the security officers, and they were quick to remove their armor and gear, replacing them with Alliance battle dress uniforms with their sidearm and personal defense shielding attached.

Presidium was in its late morning time, and the simulated skies above them were blue and laced with puffy white clouds. Everything seemed bright, white, blue and green, with green and pink-leaved alien trees adding a springtime flavor.

To Marcus, it was nothing but a typical show of power. Nobody would bother with fountains, gardens, and sculptures otherwise. It was a nice place, nonetheless, and it made him feel pleasant… although, maybe, the pleasant sensation could have come from Jaina twining her arm around his bicep and pressing herself firmly against him. They shared a look and a smile. It felt good. It felt real good.

"Big place," Kaidan commented as he looked around the spaciousness of the Presidium.

"Yeah, nice lake," Ashley spoke sarcastically. "I wonder if somebody drowned in it."

Marcus laughed out loud and spoke:

"I don't know, Chief, turians are bad swimmers."

"Yeah, maybe some of them sleep with the fishes down there," she commented with gory glee.

"There's no fish there – that's Presidium's own water supply," Jaina said. "Don't ask me how I know that."

As they walked along, they crossed paths with several C-Sec patroller pairs, mostly turians and asari, and several times the C-Sec had scanned them with their omni-tools as they passed by.

"They are checking our weapon permits," Jaina notified them.

"We draw attention with our sidearm at our hips," Marcus noted as he looked around. "People are giving us second glances. They're not used to people other than C-Sec packing a piece."

"Yeah, small wonder with a place like this," Kaidan commented. "Imagine how weird it might have been if we were wearing our full armor and combat gear."

"The full fives?" Ashley snickered, referring to the five weapon types that spec-ops would wear. "They'd think we're here to invade them! I sure would like to see their reactions to that."

A sudden noise erupted somewhere behind them, and just as they turned, a horde of miniature aliens roared pass them. A miniature elcor was running at full speed on his four limbs with a small human boy and asari girl riding on his back and followed closely by a turian boy and girl at a full run. The human boy on elcor's back was sporting a maniacal grin while the asari girl was holding onto him for her dear life, and the two turian kids were yelling something gleefully in their little flanged voices.

There was a moment of silence as the little chaotic menagerie disappeared around the corner, and an asari C-Sec officer ran by after them.

"Come back here, you little brats!" she yelled desperately. "By the Goddess, I swear, when I get you…"

The asari's voice and angry mutterings faded in the distance.

"Well, those kids certainly don't give a damn about inter-species politics!" Ashley exclaimed with a stunned expression on her face.

"You could say that again, Chief," Kaidan spoke slowly.

Jaina looked pointedly up at Marcus, and her eyes met his. _Yes, we're still having six or seven of those_ – Marcus's eyes were replying pointedly back, a small smirk dancing in the corner of his lips.

Jaina rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat. _Men_.

The time they spent on the Presidium passed quickly. The rest of the sightseeing was spent mostly commenting on the new and exotic things they saw, with a few hours spent at one of the upper-tier bars.

"Do you think the investigation has managed to find anything by now?" Kaidan asked as they lounged at a table on a balcony that overlooked the lakes of the Presidium.

Marcus glanced at the time, noting that they still had about forty-five minutes till the hearing started.

"This was a ridiculously small amount of time, just like Udina said," he replied. "The most they could have done was to check out Saren's location during the time of the attack; that can be done quickly with personal tag beacon unless he turned it off. They could have sent queries into his finances and analyzed it quickly with C-Sec grade VI-s, and they could have sent feelers out if they've had some shady contacts. But doing all of that takes a lot of time and effort. I don't see how anyone could have done that in the few hours that they had."

"Maybe we should have started our own investigation," Kaidan ventured.

"No go," Jaina shook her head. "We wouldn't know where to start. We need contacts, information… all of that costs, and takes time to pan out."

"Precisely," Marcus concurred. "The most what we can do is to appear at the hearing and point out the facts in such a manner that will put pressure on the Council to have no other choice but to act in our favor."

"I don't think the Council will act kindly if we put pressure on them," Kaidan commented.

Marcus shook his head. "That's not the kind of pressure I'm talking about, Lt," he said. "The Councilors are seasoned politicians. That means that whatever kind of proof we find, they'll try to counter it with something that might show that proof as inadequate. They'll be as slippery as an eel, and the only way for us to corner them will be to overwhelm them so they won't have room to budge."

"Aaand _that_ 's why I hate politicians," Ashley commented.

Marcus leaned forward then, and waved with his omni-tool over a small scanner at the center of the table, thus paying their bill.

"Now, come on," he said as he stood up. "They told us to be early, and I intend to do just that. I've never been to the Tower, and I need to examine my surroundings."

"Now, there's some wisdom right there," Kaidan spoke as he and the rest stood up as well and followed Marcus out of the café.

The nearby rapid-transit platform held a few readily-available cabs, and Marcus promptly commandeered one. The curving circular interior of the Presidium ring was over twenty kilometers in length, and they were almost seven kilometers away from Citadel Tower, yet the standard X3M skycar deposited them at the bottom of the Tower in less than five minutes.

As they exited the car and started walking toward the bottom of the Tower, they noticed four turian C-Sec officers guarding the entrance, each holding a rifle in his hands and an active security camera above the entrance.

Marcus scanned the visible security with his eyes, noting that there had to be a significant number of additional personnel hidden from sight. When they approached within a few paces, one of the turians stepped forward and into their way.

"This is a restricted area, human," he spoke with a haughty voice. "Alliance soldiers have no business here."

"We are summoned to a Council hearing," Marcus spoke calmly, yet his eyes stared warningly into the turian's as he raised and activated his omni-tool, this presenting their credentials.

The turian looked down, and spoke without properly checking the digital signature with his own omni-tool:

"There is no way that mere soldiers would have business in the Citadel Tower! Those credentials must be fake."

"What?!" Ashley exclaimed angrily. "You didn't even check th-"

She halted abruptly when she saw Marcus's threatening gaze piercing her. The turian smirked.

"Well, it is nice to see that some humans hold their dogs on a leash," he said condescendingly.

Marcus turned his head slowly back to the turian, trained his cold, deathly stare at him.

"You have disrespected one of my soldiers, officer," he spoke coldly. "You owe her an apology."

The turian must have sensed something wrong. It was in Marcus's voice, his eyes and posture, and it crossed the species' boundary. The turian flinched as his eyes widened, and he reacted by quickly assuming a stance and pointing his rifle at Marcus's chest.

"Back off, now!" he growled.

The other turians had suddenly grown agitated at the unfolding scene.

"Ralick!" one of the turians spoke up agitatedly. "What are you doing?!"

Suddenly, another flanged voice from behind Marcus's group cut through authoritatively like a lash,

"What is going on here?!"

The turians turned with a start at the new figure that emerged from behind Marcus's group.

"Executor Palin!" the aggressive turian guard, Ralick, greeted him as he straightened and gave him a turian salute. "These men wanted to enter the Citadel Tower."

"And?!" the Executor queried, irritation lacing his voice. "Did they have credentials?"

"Sir, I…" the turian stammered.

"Commander Shepard," Executor turned toward Marcus, speaking with a lighter, more official tone of voice. "You did bring your credentials, didn't you?"

Marcus showed him the omni-tool, and Palin promptly scanned it with his omni-tool, then looked at Ralick.

"Seems fine to me," he said pointedly, to what Ralick gulped. "You and your men may proceed, Commander Shepard."

"Not until officer Ralick apologizes for insulting my soldier," Marcus spoke coldly.

Palin turned sharply toward the group of guards. "Is this true?!" he asked sharply.

"Sir, no!" Ralick stammered.

Suddenly, Marcus pressed a button on his still-active omni-tool, and Ralick's smug voice came back out of it:

" _Well, it is nice to see that some humans hold their dogs on a leash_."

Marcus paid close attention to the turian guard's face, memorizing his reaction. He couldn't tell if turians would grow pale when faced with these situations or not, but he took great care to note the wide eyes, tightly clenched jaw and mandibles, and the rigid posture the turian assumed.

There was a low growl coming from Executor's throat.

"Officer Ralick," he spoke slowly. "This kind of behavior is unacceptable. You are hereby suspended without pay until further notice. Officer Chorelix, relieve officer Ralick of his weapons and badge."

"Yes sir," one of the other turians replies, then approached Ralick and took the gear from the shell-shocked man.

Palin turned to Marcus and spoke formally, even though there was a disgruntled look plastered on his face:

"Commander Shepard, on behalf of Citadel Security, I offer my apologies to you and your men for the improper actions of one of our officers. His behavior was unprofessional and unbecoming of a C-Sec officer, and also of a turian."

Marcus glanced at Ashley and nodded.

"Apology accepted," Ashley replied.

"Good," Palin replied. "Now that that's over with, you might as well join me on the ride up to the tower."

He turned and started walking toward the entrance, with Marcus and his companions following suit.

"How did you know who I was, Executor?" Marcus asked as they walked through the small atrium toward the elevator.

"You are a person of interest for this hearing, Commander," Palin replied. "And this is a very high-profile case. I take it as a personal task to be informed of everything and everyone relevant. And you are highly relevant."

They filed into one of the few spacious elevators that led up into the tower, and Palin tapped the control.

"This elevator ride will be a bit long," Palin mentioned, then added, "an unfortunate thing that is the case with the Wards access elevators as well."

"Is it some kind of technical problem that makes these elevators slow?" Marcus asked.

"Hm? Oh no, quite the contrary, Commander," Palin replied. "These elevators aren't slow; they're exceptionally fast, in fact. However, people tend to forget that the Citadel Tower is four kilometers tall and that the Wards are of commensurate distance as well. Yet all they care about is complaining about the length of elevator rides," he sighed. "Well, in any case, this gives us a moment to talk." He then turned toward Marcus and folded his hands behind his back. "Do tell me something, Commander: do you always record all of your conversations?"

"Only when I judge that the conversation might yield some statements that might be relevant," Marcus replied calmly. "Your officer had expressed his hostility from the very first second."

"He wouldn't be the first nor the last you meet, and I wouldn't be surprised if you encounter much more," Palin replied nonplussed. "You humans are eager to take all the power you can get, and you're being given a lot. If the Council wants to make humanity their new favorite pet, that's their business, but I don't have to like it."

"Sounds like you are one of those people that do not like humans very much that you've mentioned," Jaina pointed out.

"No, I just don't trust you, humans," he replied easily. "You're a young species, Commander Jaina Shepard, and you tend to be rash and impulsive, and that kind of thing is a disaster in the making. With the Council favoring you so much, some of us think you're being too privileged."

"The Council treats humanity as second-class citizens, Executor, and you know it," Marcus replied coolly. "We have to fight for everything we get."

"Good," Executor said, looking sideways. "Then fight for it. But don't expect the rest of us to just sit back and let you take it."

Marcus had just silently locked gazes with the Executor for one tense, silent moment.

"I trust you're here because of the hearing?" Marcus spoke, diverting the subject to a less volatile conversation.

"I am," Palin replied. "Like I said, this is a high-profile case; someone like me should attend the hearing."

"What did you find out about Saren?" Marcus asked.

"Sorry, Commander," Palin replied with his mandibles hanging low. "I do not have a habit of divulging information concerning an ongoing investigation."

"Still ongoing?" Marcus asked in bewilderment.

"The timeframe given by the Council was ridiculously short," Palin spoke with annoyance at the situation. "I wanted to give my man all the time he could get. The Council definitely wants to – what was that expression my human officers use? Ah yes – sweep this thing under the rug. Spirits forbid from something happening to the right hand of the Council… or more like the under-hand of the Council."

"You don't approve of the Spectres?" Jaina asked.

"I can't abide with any organization that considers itself above the law," Palin replied.

"The secret services exist to do the job that is necessary in order to protect the safety of the citizens," Marcus stated. "That's what we do, Executor."

"Ah, yes, the N7 agents are something like field special operations and hit-men, aren't they?" Palin said, nodding as he recalled. "I agree that such agencies are needed – I'm not naïve, Commander. However, you're different than Spectres; you do the task that you are ordered to do by your superiors – as things are supposed to be done. But Spectres don't listen to anyone. They don't have a structured hierarchy, and every single one of them can do things in a way that he or she pleases! That is the thing which I cannot abide with. I've seen what that much power does to Spectres. They become prideful, arrogant, brash, and sooner or later they start to think they're the Primarch of the whole Galaxy! Saren is just like that. He is by far the worst of all the Spectres I've met. He's out of control, and we all know that, but because he's the Council's top man, they don't want to do anything about it."

The elevator finally reached the top of the Citadel Tower, and the group exited. Palin pointed ahead of him and spoke:

"The hearing will be held before the public Council podium. It's straight ahead, on the far side of the great hall, just in front of the tall window. You can't miss it. It won't start for another twenty minutes at least, so feel free to look around. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

Palin then went on his way, leaving the group to their own devices.

"Commander," Ashley decided to speak up, uncertainty obvious in her voice. "I wanted to apologize for acting impulsively down there in front of the Tower. That turian officer got to me."

Marcus nodded. "You need to be cautious about that, Williams," he warned, not looking at her. "I can see that you have a strongly-developed sense of justice, but we're walking among the wolves here. Wolves don't care about justice; they only care about being fed. The moment you act in anger, they will smell the blood and will double their attack. So, do not let them wound you, Ash."

"Yes sir," she replied readily. "Thank you, sir."

"Alright," Marcus said. "Come. Let's see what this battleground looks like!"

"Well, the battleground sure has a lot of stairs, that's for sure," Kaidan commented lightheartedly as they began climbing.

"I bet those are not just for decoration," Ashley ventured. "See there? A lot of cover in and between. And what are those? Cherry trees?"

"That's Thessian shaira tree," Jaina provided. "It is valued among the asari for its beauty."

"Lots of effort was spent on maintaining them," Kaidan noted. "They want to show-off with their prestige. They want to intimidate any visitors into feeling small and inferior."

"I dunno, Lt," Ashley spoke as she gazed up toward the almost inconceivably high ceiling. "It sure is working."

"I don't see a lot of security around here," Jaina spoke as she looked up at the shaded balustrades. "Those vantage points must be teeming with snipers. That's where I'd go, anyway."

"Makes sense having something like that around at a place as important as this, I guess," Kaidan shrugged.

"There are a lot of passages to the sides," Marcus noted. "Plenty of sideways doors. That is where additional security forces might be present. It might also be where Council's closed cabinet is located at."

"Are those news cameras?" Ashley pointed toward one of the balconies. "And there on the other side, too!"

"The public Council sessions are _sometimes_ transmitted live," Jaina said. "They have a channel reserved specially for that." She turned to Marcus. "Something tells me they expect to humble us with what happens today."

"Then we must play extra cool once we're out there in front of the Councilors," Marcus said, then turned to the other two. "If anyone summons you forth, I want you to be as cool as a knife."

"Do you really think this hearing will last that long or be that important?" Kaidan asked skeptically.

"The first impression is always the most important," Jaina spoke. "It might not turn out to be that much, but it will open more doors in the long run. Besides, it's better to bring the best of your game and not need it, than be caught off guard."

They had crossed the expanse of the main hall by that point and had climbed the final stairway that led to the main stage. There was an asari at the top of the steps, wearing a long and elegant dress, who stepped in front of them as they approached.

"You must be Commander Marcus Shepard?" she asked politely.

"Correct," he replied.

"I am Orinia, the proceedings attendant," she spoke. "The hearing won't start for another fifteen minutes. You may wait here, or you may take a seat down in the atrium – you would be called once the hearing started."

"If it's all the same to you, we'll wait here," Marcus replied, noting the woman's calculating, alert eyes.

"Of course," she said, inclining her head. "You may stay in this area now and during the hearing. If you are called in front of the Council, you will then proceed forward onto the platform where you may state your case or answer any queries."

"Understood," Marcus said, then walked onto the platform with his companions.

"More people are filing out into the surrounding balconies," Kaidan noted. "Our appearance might have drawn more attention."

"I wonder if that many people are a usual thing for a Council hearing," Ashley mused out loud.

Jaina was scanning the people when she noticed movement on one of the higher, deserted balconies.

"Got him," she spoke up. "A sniper, right there, seven o'clock, fifth balcony. He shifted to monitor the crowd."

"Those are perks of cybernetic eyes, alright," Marcus murmured. "That means the additional snipers are located there, there, and there," he pointed at several locations along the higher balconies. "Clear view of this platform; unhindered aim at everyone present here."

He then noted the asari attendant watching him with a calm calculating look as she listened to what they were saying.

"And they have undercover commandos on the ground," he stated calmly as he looked pointedly at her. The asari didn't react, or so much as twitched as she looked back at him sideways.

Kaidan raised his eyebrows in surprise as he realized the truth behind Marcus's words, then turned ponderously toward the elevated platform where the Councilors would stand.

"If that's the case, then I wouldn't put it pass them that they have some heavy-grade barriers protecting that platform," he said.

"Neither would I," Marcus concurred.

Marcus's omni-tool chimed, and Marcus took the incoming call.

" _Commander, where are you?_ " Anderson's voice came through.

"In the Tower, all the way up on the stage," he replied.

" _Good,_ " Anderson spoke. " _We'll be right there._ "

A couple of minutes later, both Anderson and Udina stepped up onto the stage and were promptly greeted by the asari commando that posed as an attendant.

"Good, you're all here," Udina said.

"How do you want this done, Ambassador?" Marcus asked.

"Your men will just stay right here, Commander, and they don't need to do anything else, unless called upon," Udina replied. "You, however, will be with Anderson and me over there, since you led the team. We have to convince the Council that we're in the right, and that is all that I can tell you. I don't know what kind of stance the Council will assume, who will they call upon, when will they call him upon, how will they react – nothing! It's all up to us, so we must not screw it up, Commander."

"We won't," Marcus stated firmly, looking down pointedly at Udina.

"I'm just saying, Commander," Udina raised his hands in placating gesture.

A pleasant feminine voice then spread through the great hall, calling all participants of the hearing onto the stage. There was a shuffling of steps behind them, and Executor Palin stepped onto the stage, followed closely by a turian C-Sec officer.

"Sir, I know Saren's hiding something," the younger turian spoke. "Can't you give me more time? Stall them?"

"Stall the Council?!" Palin looked at his companion as if he had grown horns. "Are you mad Garrus? The hearing is already starting. You'll just have to present the few things you've found."

Garrus sighed. "Yes, sir," he said resignedly.

Marcus turned back toward the Council platform and saw a large holographic projection of a turian on the left side looking down at all of them. The turian was unlike any other he had ever seen. His skin was exceptionally metallic gray, and his face was bare of any typical turian markings. His mandibles seemed to be fused to the sides of his face with some metal prosthetics, and the armor he wore looked disturbingly geth-like.

But what was the most striking were the turian's eyes. They were cybernetic blue, and they radiated arrogance and hate.

"That's Saren," Anderson spoke grimly next to him. "So, he has shown his ugly face."

Marcus turned and looked at Executor Palin who stood just a couple of paces away from him. The Executor looked grimly back at him as if he was saying: _"I told you what he was like."_ Marcus nodded gravely.

When he turned back toward the platform, the Councilors were filing into their places from one of the side doors that they passed through. Councilor Tevos was the first one who spoke.

"We will hereby begin the hearing concerning the assault on the recognized Systems Alliance colony of Eden Prime, and the subsequent death of a Spectre agent, Nihlus Kryik," she announced. "Ambassador Udina, please state your case."

Udina nodded to Anderson and Marcus, and the three men approached the central podium in front of the Council platform.

"Honored Councilors," he began, "I will let Captain Anderson of the SSV Normandy present the facts from Eden Prime, as his ship was the first to respond."

Anderson stepped up and started speaking.

"Approximately 15:13 Citadel-standard-time, we have received this distress call," he began. "It had been agreed upon by both Spectre Nihlus Kryik and me to send a small strike team to recover the artifact we were originally sent to retrieve. Commander Marcus Shepard had led a three-person team on the ground, while Spectre Kryik acted alone as a forward scout. As a standard protocol, our N7 agents carry helmet-mounted recording devices. Both of our present agents have had one, and they had both recorded the situation planet-side."

"I'd like to see these recordings," Councilor Sparatus spoke up, skepticism heavy in his voice.

Anderson looked at Marcus and nodded. Taking his cue, Marcus stepped up and activated his omni-tool, linking it up to a second large projector in the chamber. He purposefully skipped the beginning and started the replay in front of the spaceport, right when the fighting had been the heaviest.

There were several minutes of silence in the hall as all of the people of interest, as well as numerous spectators and cameras, observed the fast-paced and frantic fighting against the synthetic enemies. Marcus chose a moment to pause right when one of the geth soldiers was close to the camera at the time of the recording.

"I trust that the C-Sec has verified the authenticity of these recordings?" Councilor Valern queried when the stream stopped.

"We have, Councilor," Executor Palin spoke. "They are genuine and unedited."

"I see," Valern nodded. "Then this truly was a Geth attack. This is a greatly disconcerting matter, indeed. Commander Shepard, tell us some of your observations pertaining to this attack."

"It was what you would expect: Geth were indiscriminate in their attacks, be it a military or a civilian target, but that's not the least of your concerns," he stated nonchalantly.

"Is that so?" Sparatus said as he narrowed his eyes. "Then what is, pray tell?"

"The fact that the Geth had bypassed all of the STG listening posts throughout the Skyllian Verge without raising the alert," he replied. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but other than the STG, only Spectres themselves have the access to those posts' feeds and MO."

Suddenly, Saren, who had stayed eerily silent up until that moment, spoke up.

"Is there something you're trying to say, Commander Shepard?" he sneered.

Councilor Tevos hurriedly spoke up, trying to calm the situation:

"We know that the Systems Alliance has accused Spectre Saren Arterius of participating in Eden Prime attack, but while this Geth attack is obviously a matter of concern, there is nothing to indicate Saren was involved in any way."

"Then you're in even more dire straits, Councilors," Marcus countered easily. "If Saren is involved, then it would only mean this was an inside job, but if he wasn't, then that means that the Geth have means of freely bypassing all of the Citadel's listening posts, wherever and whenever they want!"

All three of the Councilors shifted on their feet, sharing what was obviously a disconcerting look; their jaws were tight and eyes hard, darting to and fro as they considered the implications.

"These accusations are ridiculous!" Saren sniffed derisively, his voice laced with contempt and impatience. "The Citadel employs the most advanced technology! There is no way the Geth could parry it. Worst of all, you imply that a Spectre had sided with the Geth. But what can you expect from a human – especially since I see Captain Anderson with you! You always seem to be around when false accusations are made against me, Captain. Either show me the proof or be gone with this charade!"

"As you wish, Saren," Marcus said promptly without being fazed, and moved the recording tracker bar onto the designated spot, letting it play.

The video started at the place where he and his teammates were examining Nihlus's dead body and postulating what might have happened when they heard and made Powel the Smuggler show himself and start speaking. Marcus patiently let the recording go at its stride, as Powel spoke in detail what was going on until he came to the most relevant point:

"… _Well, your friend called him by name: Saren. He wanted to know what Saren was doing here since, apparently, this wasn't his mission. Saren told him he was sent by the Council. Your friend then let his guard down – he started talking about the situation, how things were bad, and about that time I hear – BANG! That was when the geth came back, and a few minutes later I hear these sounds of battle, thinking an entire Alliance platoon was blasting its way toward this place. Imagine my surprise when all I saw was you four."_

"This is ridiculous!" Saren exclaimed when the recording paused. "A testimony of one very obviously traumatized dock worker cannot be taken as hard evidence! There must be millions of turians called Saren, and how could he even be sure that the name was 'Saren', for that matter? He himself stated that was sleeping behind the crates – he could have dreamt it all!"

"No person can sleep through hours of battlefield explosions, no matter the species," Marcus retorted calmly. "It's against physiological preservation drive. This man was awake long before Nihlus's death."

Councilor Tevos intervened:

"Be that as it may, Saren has a point. This one dockworker's testimony is not sufficient evidence to prove Saren's guilt."

"Besides," Councilor Sparatus spoke up – though the skeptical and condescending tones of his voice were now completely gone, replaced by calculated focus, "this does not provide sufficient clarity as to how Nihlus Kryik died! The witness said that he only _heard_ a gunshot, not who pulled the trigger. For all we know, it might have been someone else entirely – it might have been the Geth!"

While Sparatus was speaking, Marcus had already navigated his omni-tool to the other video he had in its memory banks and brought it up on screen. He spoke the moment Councilor Sparatus finished.

"This recording was made by spaceport's security camera that oversees the warehouse area. It, too, had passed checkup of the C-Sec tech experts for its validity."

As the recording played out, everybody in the great hall could clearly see the lonely figure, and everybody could see without a doubt that it was a male turian. They saw Nihlus's arrival, and the short exchange he had with the unknown turian, all until the point when the other turian raised his sidearm after Nihlus turned away from him, and shot him in the back of the head without any hesitation.

Rather than watching the vid he had seen several times already, Marcus closely watched the faces of the Councilors and Saren. He noticed with a tiny sense of satisfaction that Saren had been initially surprised when he must have realized that they had him on the vid.

The Councilors were obviously unpleasantly surprised at what they were seeing. Tevos and Valern were wide-eyed. Sparatus was seething. They were obviously noticing the similarities between the shaded turian on the vid and Saren, even though the image quality was too poor to properly identify.

Marcus kept the video going until his team appeared at the crest of the hill and started tearing into the numerous Geth forces, all the way until they met up with Powel, corroborating the validity of the video. He finished by rewinding to the scene of Nihlus's death.

"You expect anyone to be identified from this pathetically poor-quality recording?" Saren spoke with contempt. "The turian figure could have been anyone! The face is always in the shadow of the sun's glare!"

"Yet how many turians do have the temple crests on the sides of their heads?" Marcus countered as he pointed out at the vid. "The way I understand it, it is a rare genetic trait that manifests only in one in a million male turians on average. And what about that armor outline of that 'unknown' turian on the vid? That shoulder pauldron bears an uncanny resemblance to the one you now wear. How many of those turians hold the name 'Saren', as the witness stated?"

"Circumstantial, all of it!" Saren shouted out. "Is this what we're basing this hearing? How am I to defend my innocence if –"

"Saren, that's ENOUGH!" Sparatus shouted out, silencing every single person in the room. Sparatus continued much more quietly. "Where were you during the time of the Eden Prime attack?"

"I was following my own investigations!" Saren exclaimed angrily. "You can't expect me to divulge classified information!"

"You don't have to," Executor Palin suddenly spoke up as he took a couple of steps forward. "Your biometric data is gathered with every Spectre authorization you've made. The Council had authorized me to track it down."

"Executor," Tevos spoke up briskly. "What have you found out?"

Palin turned and summoned his younger associate. "Garrus!"

The younger turian stepped up and promptly tapped a few commands on his omni-tool. Galaxy map sprung up, and numerous points of interests were highlighted. Garrus spoke:

"Spectre Saren Arterius had made forty-six Spectre authorizations over the course of the previous month. All of them originated in various points throughout the Attican Traverse. His Spectre tracking beacon was active during most of that time, but it was suspiciously inactive exactly during Eden Prime attack."

"This proves nothing!" Saren sneered. "I told you I was performing an investigation! I had to turn off my transponder!"

" _However,_ " Garrus intoned, drawing everyone's attention back onto himself. "When Commander Shepard mentioned the possibility of someone bypassing the STG's listening post's monitoring feeds in order for the Geth to sneak through, I cross-referenced this with Saren's Spectre authorizations, and came up with a match!"

He tapped the control, and three points on the galaxy map started blinking.

"According to these logs, Spectre Saren Arterius had accessed these three automated listening stations at these times, authorizing a temporary cessation of monitoring, which lasted for thirty minutes for each of the stations – which was more than enough time for any decently-coordinated fleet to sneak through undetected!" he finished victoriously.

There was a long moment of stunned silence before Sparatus turned toward Saren's hologram.

"Saren," he spoke slowly. "You are hereby ordered to return to the Citadel, and surrender into the custody of the Citadel Security, while the further investigation is…"

Sparatus trailed off when he saw Saren tapping a command on his side of the link, making his hologram fade out of existence. Sparatus clenched his fists in fury. Saren had even refused to wait for him to finish speaking. He had refused to defend his actions.

Councilor Tevos, the most experienced and practiced of all the Councilors, spoke composedly:

"It is obvious that Saren Arterius has refused to acknowledge direct orders. This Council hereby suspends his Spectre status, and is issuing a detaining order."

"You know that's not enough, Councilors!" ambassador Udina pleaded quite loudly. "Saren's reaction when you ordered him to surrender is evidence enough that he has gone rogue! He will not surrender! What's to stop him from attacking another human colony?!"

"Saren may be a rogue agent as you say, but he's a man that's obviously on the run for his life," Sparatus replied, shaking his head. "He's been stripped of his status, he no longer has the resources and funding of a Spectre, and he will be in no position to do anything."

Suddenly, there was a thunderous, reverberating horning noise that echoed throughout the large hall, startling everyone. Nobody had noticed when Marcus had been tapping away on his omni-tool and had used the time to bring up a new part of his helm's camera recordings.

Everyone present looked with a start into a vid that showed the massive squid-like alien ship launching into the air from where it was landed behind the spaceport while issuing the thunderous noise that now echoed across the hall. Marcus rewound the clip and paused it while the ship was on the ground where it could be easily compared to the spaceport, and played a specific audio feed. Nihlus's voice could be clearly heard:

" _I've spotted that strange vessel we saw on the distress call. It's standing right next to the star port. The damn thing's gigantic. Over two kilometers tall if my VI's visual comparison to the star port control tower is accurate."_

The Councilors kept a wary watch on the strange vessel.

"A comparison of this alien ship's size to the spaceport control tower and the mountain's backdrop in the distance that was made by a VI, states with 99% accuracy that this ship is between 1997 and 2005 meters tall," Marcus said into the silence.

"Spirits," Sparatus muttered with his full attention on the vessel. "That thing is enormous!" he looked down at Marcus questioningly. "And that was one of the ships that attacked Eden Prime?"

"Are you sure that was not some kind of hologram, Commander?" Valern asked, agitation clear in his voice. "Or maybe a simple gas-filled blimp shaped like a ship?"

Marcus tapped in a new command, and an image of a massive molten circle on the ground next to the spaceport was depicted.

"It left this at the location where it landed at," Marcus replied. "The scar's large enough to fit a cruiser. With all due respect, Councilors, a blimp does not make that kind of damage, even if it were to explode."

"I see," Valern replied as the image shifted back to the massive ship. "Its element zero core must be at least five times as massive as the Destiny Ascension if the ship that size managed to _land_."

"Precisely," Marcus replied succinctly. "And ships tend to have kinetic barriers as well."

The heads of all three Councilors snapped to look at Marcus in horrified realizations, before returning their gazes back to the image.

"It must have barriers that far outclass anything of ours," Valern spoke in wonder.

"What of its weaponry?" Sparatus asked heatedly.

"Weaponry?" Marcus snorted mirthlessly. "Frankly, I'd like to believe that this thing doesn't have a coaxially-mounted main gun, as we don't really have proof… but we all know better than that, now don't we? You say that Saren has no more resources now that he is stripped of his status, but _that ship_ came with Saren, Councilors. He has that ship, and he has Geth on his side – machines that do not use or need money and have certainly not allied with him for that; machines that would most certainly be able to maintain an industry to both resupply and rebuild his forces. Do you still think that stripping him of Spectre resources and funding has done you any good? With that kind of firepower and logistics, he can earn ten times as much in a day in the Terminus Systems than he would with Spectre funding in a year – and that's assuming he even needs funding!"

Udina chose the moment everyone was stunned into silence to speak up:

"You see how dangerous Saren is? You know he is hiding somewhere in the Traverse – send your fleets in!"

"We cannot send our fleets in, Ambassador, or the Terminus factions will tear into our open flank like a flood of hungry varren!" Sparatus replied bitterly. "And even if we do, a whole fleet cannot track one man!"

"Then what about Spectres themselves?" Captain Anderson provided. "They would know how to catch another Spectre."

"That's just the problem, Captain Anderson," Valern replied ruefully. "Saren also knows how our Spectres operate, and he would know how to track their current location. There is no doubt that he could dodge any one Spectre at every turn, and if we send more of them, we might open the Citadel to other venues of attack. And Spectres are not known to operate as a team."

Udina spread his arms helplessly, and then let them fall in defeat as he turned desperately to Anderson for some help into finding a solution. He was met with Anderson's soldierly tight-lipped frown.

"I have a solution," Marcus spoke up with an air of calm confidence that drew everyone's attention. "There is a way to track and chase Saren without him ever knowing where his chaser is; without him ever being able to tell from which side the punch will come, and for him to never have an adequate response even if he were to realize where it's coming from."

The Councilors looked amongst each other in confusion.

"We're listening," Councilor Tevos spoke at last.

"You need three things," Marcus spoke with his fingers raised. "The first of these things happens to be this one special ship that was made by joint turian and human engineering. It's the fastest ship in the Council space, and it has the technology to remain stealth and undetected by any sensors."

The Councilors looked amongst themselves. Of course, they knew what ship he was referring to. Anderson and Udina shared a look and smiled as Marcus continued his presentation.

"Secondly, you need to send a man after him who does not operate under usual Spectre MO. A man skilled enough to fight anything Saren would throw at him, be it a mercenary, a pirate, or a geth, and someone who Saren will not have an adequate response to.

"And thirdly, you'd need to do what each of our ancestors did when they used the mass relay for the first time: you need to take a leap of faith. Because if you think that doing nothing against Saren just because you don't have an adequate solution is acceptable, then you'd be betraying everything that you're fighting for as people who are sworn to preserve galactic stability, not to mention innocent lives."

There was a pause as an excited murmur spread throughout the balconies from where even more people seemed to have flocked as the hearing had progressed. The Councilors turned to each other in grim understanding, sharing a silent conversation amongst themselves. A moment later, they turned back to the assembly, and Councilor Valern spoke slowly but meaningfully:

"The kind of man you're proposing would need special operating privileges, and would require access to Special Tactics and Reconnaissance resources."

"You have stated your case well, Commander," Councilor Tevos acknowledged. "Your skills and abilities that we have witnessed here are undisputed! They most certainly justify your Spectre candidacy. Even though your candidacy wasn't the purpose of this meeting, we are willing to address that issue right here and now. In essence, you truly are the only logical choice for a man that would hunt down Saren."

Councilor Sparatus spoke up in turn:

"I still feel that something like that would be too soon for humanity," he said. "But unlike the impulsiveness and brashness your species had, unfortunately, became notorious for, you have conducted this hearing with calmness and precision that gives me hope, Commander." He then paused and nodded as he spoke, "I'm willing to take that leap of faith."

The three Councilors pressed a series of commands into their respective consoles, and then Councilor Tevos spoke:

"Commander Marcus Shepard, step forward."

Stone-faced Marcus glanced to the grinning Anderson and gave a barely perceptible wink of cunning before stepping up to the edge of the platform. He stood at parade rest, looking bored and unperturbed as if he was standing in a cashier's line at a market store, while the murmurs of the numerous spectators all over the great hall rose to be heard like a hum.

"It is the decision of the Council to grant you all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel."

"Spectres are not trained," Valern picked up. "They are chosen – individuals that were forged in the fire of service in battle, whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."

Tevos took over:

"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol, an embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council; instruments of our will."

Sparatus finished the most imperiously:

"Spectres bear a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense. The safety of the Galaxy is theirs to uphold."

"Congratulations, Commander," Tevos spoke. "You are the first human Spectre. This is a great accomplishment for your entire species."

"I thank you, Councilors," Marcus spoke a few seconds after they've finished. "But our work is just beginning. There is the matter of what steps must be taken in order to find Saren."

"Indeed," Valern spoke. "But it is clear that Saren is hiding in the Attican Traverse. We'll be sending you there, but we will be forwarding any relevant files through Ambassador Udina, of course."

"That's not what I am talking about, Councilors," Marcus retorted firmly, allowing a slight tone of exasperation show in his voice. "Saren may have gone rogue, but he has not gone crazy. He will not use old contacts and leads to leave a trail for us to follow him by. The most he will do is use intermediaries, and something like that cannot be tracked if it is in the lawless section of the Galaxy – not even by a Spectre. The majority of the intel you give me will be unusable. No; something else entirely must be done."

The Councilors shared a grim look of understanding.

"What are you suggesting, Commander?" Sparatus asked.

"We're so concerned with him attacking Eden Prime that we never asked _**why**_ did he attack Eden Prime," Marcus said pointedly. "Something was there that he wanted bad, bad enough to attack with vicious intensity… and the only two things Eden Prime has are farms and Prothean artifacts."

"Are you saying that he came after the Prothean Beacon?" Tevos asked discerningly.

"I do, Councilors. Look," Marcus spoke as he activated the Eden Prime spaceport security cam recording once more. He skipped to the part that came some time before Nihlus's approach to Saren, and his subsequent death. The video showed the Prothean beacon being transported by the Geth into the spaceport.

"If the Beacon was what Saren was after," Sparatus spoke. "Then why did he leave it behind?"

"I don't think he was after the Beacon, but whatever is in it," Marcus replied. "You won't lug your terminal if you have the data on an OSD."

"Why would he leave it for us to uncover its secrets, and thus seek him out based on it?" Sparatus countered. "It makes no sense."

"He didn't plan to leave anything! He placed a ten megaton thermonuclear bomb to wipe out everything in a ten-kilometer radius!"

Sparatus was silenced.

"You really think this Beacon can hold the answers to what Saren seeks?" Tevos asked.

"It could point out a general direction where to look at," Marcus nodded. "If it holds some Prothean super weapon blueprints, he'd certainly need specialized resources to build it – resources which are produced at few locations. That could give us a place where we can stalk him at."

"That's actually a sound strategy, Commander," Valern admitted. "But your report says that you had shut down the Beacon in order to prevent its explosive overload. Understandable under given circumstances, but we might not be able to turn it back on."

"Trust me, Councilor, that thing will want to activate on its own," Marcus replied dryly. "The thing may be highly advanced overall, but its "on/off" switch was a Prothean version of Willard's transformer. The regulator equivalent within it was fried – probably degraded due to age – and it opened exponential loop in the quint-phasic current oscillator that the beacon was using. I just dampened the feed to the transformer and robbed it of its juice."

"So you're saying that all we'd need to do is target it with a sustained quint-phasic EM wave, and it would restart?" Valern spoke enthusiastically, then rubbed his chin. "But what frequency…"

"Just keep it between 25 and 30 megahertz, and you'll be fine," Marcus waved it off.

Valern perked up, then nodded. "Very well, Commander. We will arrange a meeting with the expert whose team we have assigned to work on the Beacon."

"Her name is Doctor Liara T'Soni," Tevos provided. "She may be young and unorthodox in her approach, but the results and advances she produced over her short career are undisputed – which has landed her a position as the head of the Prothean Research Center right here on the Citadel."

"In the meantime, we suggest you take a respite, Commander," Sparatus spoke. "This has been a trying day, and the days will be tougher still as it goes. As we said, we'll forward any relevant data on Saren, but as of now, you are also at liberty to conduct your own investigation. Now, is there anything else you might want to bare on this already _long_ and _arduous_ hearing?"

Marcus allowed a small smirk to appear at the corner of his lips. "No, Councilors, I do not."

The Councilors nodded, and Tevos spoke up:

"Then I declare this meeting of the Council is adjourned!"

The three Councilors moved from their consoles and started walking toward their exit with a bit more hurry in their step than what was usual.

Marcus turned on his heel and walked back from the platform with a swaggering gait. People with faces painted with victorious smiles awaited him.

"Congratulations, Commander," Anderson spoke with his rich commanding voice as he firmly shook hands with Marcus, obviously trying not to grin like an idiot. "Seeing how you handled yourself against that bastard, Saren, him hanging up the comm like that – it was like a long-overdue balm."

"An excellent job of handling the entire hearing!" Udina exclaimed as he took his turn in shaking Marcus's hand with both of his. "You sure have bludgeoned through their posturing, but you did it diplomatically. You might make an excellent politician someday."

"We'll see," Marcus replied completely disinterestedly, then looked at Executor Palin who still stood there.

"I suppose I should thank you for proving Saren's corruption," the Executor spoke. "It did seem that the evidence favored Saren's innocence before you brought other evidence to the fore."

"Your man here drove the deciding nail in Saren's coffin," Marcus spoke easily as he pointed, and then offered his hand to the younger turian who took it in a wholehearted handshake. "Officer Garrus, was it? That was some damn quick thinking when you connected Saren's authorizations with STG listening posts. Now we actually know how he succeeded in the surprise attack!"

"Thanks, Commander, and it's Garrus Vakarian, by the way," he introduced himself fully. "I wouldn't have done it if you haven't mentioned it to the Council as a possible scenario."

"I could still use C-Sec's help in finding clues as to Saren's whereabouts or plans," Marcus replied. "Is there a way we could work together?"

"Of course, Commander, you're a Spectre now," Garrus replied. "You can requisition C-Sec's help with anything."

"You should come to the C-Sec Academy the first chance you get," Executor Palin said. "I'll familiarize you with Spectre-C-Sec dynamics, and I'll show you to the rare stocks with our requisitions officer. You'll also be able to begin a further investigation with Garrus."

"That's right," Garrus added. "I have placed the feelers for the purpose of Saren's investigation before. I have plenty of contacts and snitches through the Wards – something is bound to come up. Until then, Commander…"

Garrus and Palin bid their goodbyes and descended quickly down the stairs.

"So, how does it feel to be the very first human Spectre, sir?" Ashley asked eagerly from where she stood with Kaidan and Jaina.

Marcus locked gaze with his wife's and noted the smoldering gaze she projected his way; there was a promise there of some very exciting things that were about to come _very_ quickly for him.

"It's feeling better by the minute, chief," he replied without taking his eyes off Jaina.

Udina, who was still present decided to break that moment.

"Now that you're a Spectre, Commander, changes must be made so that your new status and responsibilities don't clash with the Alliance Navy."

"He's right, Marcus," Anderson nodded. "Alliance regulations could hinder your ability to operate as a Spectre. The methods of operations we employ demand that you respond to a superior, but that kind of thing cannot hold with your current status. We need to find a suitable solution."

"I'll call Admiral Hackett immediately," Udina said. "He'll want to hear the news, and he'll be the one that's instrumental in establishing your new status within the Alliance. Come on, Anderson, we need to set all this up!"

"You take the rest of the day off, Commander," Anderson spoke. "You've earned it after today."

With that, the two men left hurriedly. Marcus turned to the rest of them to say something, but before he could utter a single word, Jaina stepped in front of him.

She snuggled up to him, raising her hands over his shoulders as he almost instinctively embraced her around her waist. He felt the need and demand in her body, in her eyes, and the adoration they projected for him. Only for him.

He met her lips halfway in a deep, embracing kiss, enjoying the few seconds as if they lasted for an eternity. They separated with a gasp, and as she regained her breath, Jaina spoke with a smile on her lips:

"Congratulations, Commander Shepard."

"Why, thank you, Commander Shepard," he replied smugly.

A loud and pointed coughing came from their side.

"With all due respect, commanders," Ashley spoke with a grin on her face. "But shouldn't you _find a room_?"

"Oh, we will, Ash," Jaina promised, not taking her eyes off Marcus. "We will."

Marcus somehow managed to tear his eyes away from her, and called out:

"Come on, guys! Drinks are on me!"

* * *

 **A.N.**

 **Well, there it was folks – my view on how the Council Hearing should have, and very much could have gone, and that goes without any Beacon images being implanted or mentioned. In essence, I think that this whole Spectre Achievement could have happened without ever recruiting Wrex, Garrus or Tali or Liara at all! They're really not needed if you think about it!**

 **Now, that I've scared the bejeezus outta you all, I can tell you not to worry – all of the aforementioned who are our favorite characters will obviously be included in this story. The trick is that the circumstances will be obviously somewhat different. How much different? You'll just have to see. Judging by the pace I'm achieving, I think that the next chapter might come roughly sometime around the weekend. That one will be dedicated solely to Mr. and Mrs. Shepard.**


	6. Chapter 6 - And the grown-ups will play

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _This chapter is almost entirely dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Shepard._

* * *

 _ **A VERY IMPORTANT ADRESS TO REVIEWS:**_

 _Special thanks go to_ _ **hornet07**_ _for pointing out an embarrassing spelling error in my previous chapter! I went and corrected that before posting this chapter._

 _ **animefan29**_ _has pointed out a very valid point about Liara – because Councilor Tevos herself described her as one of the foremost and respected scientists. I did this on purpose, and I have, obviously, dedicated a part of one of the upcoming chapters for covering this. I will, of course, share my reasons for doing this when that chapter comes._

 _On another note,_ _ **Indecisive Bob**_ _has expressed his prediction that the Council will be more proactive now that all the evidence was provided in the previous chapter. That is true. I do intend to make the Council_ _ **much more**_ _proactive, as well as Systems Alliance (which has appeared arguably incompetent throughout the games). I intend to make_ _ **everyone**_ _more proactive and_ _ **smart**_ _, as opposed to trying to maintain status quo. That includes both Shepards as well._

 _In regards to that,_ _ **OBSERVER01**_ _has pointed out that that it'd be good to show that Marcus's judgment shouldn't be always infallible. And he's right – in any ordinary story, having an infallible character would be just wrong._

 _But here's the thing (and I want to share this with everyone)…_

 _Before I started this story, I realized that Shepard is supposed to be a man (or in this case both MShep and FemShep) that is supposed to single-handedly prevent the destruction of the Galaxy at the tentacles of the Reapers. So – a single 2-meter-tall guy/girl against hundreds of thousands of 2-kilometer-tall death machines while everybody else is calling him/her a lunatic for thinking the Reapers are real and are actively trying to stop him from saving everyone._

 _Does that sound fair to anyone? Because it sure as hell doesn't seem fair or realistic to me. That is my motivation behind writing this story. Having a single fallible guy fight all that while blundering about is practically impossible. He's gonna get himself killed. Period._

 _Now, I'm most definitely NOT trying to make Marcus and Jaina superhumans that shoot balls of fire from their eyes and lightning bolts from their asses. All I'm doing is having the two of them THINK carefully and calculatedly and draw accurate conclusions. I'm having them use their brains through everything, not bull-rushing stupidly into enemy's line of fire – both figuratively and literally. Using their brains. That is all._

 _But, some people seem to think that they shouldn't be like this. Specifically, one other reviewer left such thoughts in his review of Chapter 5. It took me a little while to decipher everything he was trying to say (mostly because there appears to have been over 40 grammar and spelling errors in a 180-word review), but what he said amounts to Shepard (and I can only assume he was referring to him, because he misspelled his name in both cases) being a "smug prat" and a perfect, doing-everything-right guy – a thing which he obviously doesn't' like._

 _Unfortunately, I_ _ **am**_ _going to make Shepard make all the right choices and "do everything right", because I feel that if he is to fight an army of hundreds of thousands of genocidal, two-kilometer tall, hyper-intelligent, nigh-indestructible AI machines, he damn well_ _ **needs**_ _to be a perfect, doing-everything-right guy, because that's the only edge he has against them. Being anything less means the death of trillions. And Prothy the Prothean has had a thing or two to say about that._

 _The same review had also demanded that I drop military and technical aspects of this story because, apparently, nobody cares about that. I find that stance interesting, because entire Mass Effect franchise is firmly based precisely on military, sci-fi and tech aspects – especially Codex. I can understand that some people might find it hard to follow my story particularly, though; I do, after all, have a master's degree in mechanical engineering, specialized in weapons systems and rocketry, so I can understand that some of my expertise has found its way into this story. I can assure you, though, that since I take great pride in my calling, I am also taking great pleasure in incorporating low (non-academic) levels of technical aspects into it, as well as ensuring they are as accurate as possible._

 _So, while I'm grateful that the review had pointed out the difficulty some people might have with this, I'm most certainly NOT going to dumb it down. I am not writing this for the broad masses, but for those people that like to share and read about it. I'm most certainly not forcing anyone to read this._

 _Thank you!_

 _Oh, and BTW,_ _ **I have**_ _ **purposefully**_ _ **deconstructed a very big Shepard stereotype! FIND IT!**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 4.12.2016.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _I certainly hope you're going to enjoy this…_

* * *

 **Chapter 6 - And the grownups will play**

With the diplomats and officials retreating to their busy work in the aftermath of the ground-shocking Council hearing, the soldiers had gone in other direction – prowling for a place to celebrate the inauguration of the first human Spectre almost as soon as the Citadel Tower elevator expunged them onto the Presidium.

On Jaina's suggestion, the group had landed in the Flux, a funky bar-club-casino in the upper wards, and it seemed just like the right place. The drink assortment was broad, the music was compelling, and the place seemed loose. And the afternoon was spent unwinding.

Ashley was a firecracker and had an elating spirit that simply got to them, lifting the mood even higher than what would even be expected. She was a soldier through-and-through, and that meant that when she was blowing off some steam, she'd really let her hair loose. Kaidan was more of a quiet type, but a couple of beers, coupled with Ashley's infectious behavior meant that he too had eased up. But when his friend from the Normandy, Corporal Jenkins had joined them, dragging Joker of all people along with him, the good times seemed to strike it high.

But all that had happened earlier in the day. The group had stayed for a few hours, had fun, told stories, made jokes, but they had ultimately returned to the Normandy before the afternoon crossed into the evening. Marcus and Jaina returned with them, but the two of them, however, had already had other plans made.

Now, Marcus was waiting in in front of the Normandy's airlock, next to the cockpit. Rather than a battle dress uniform, he wore the stylish black leather jacket over a stylish shirt, dark pants, and shoes.

"Hey, Commander," Joker called from his pilot seat as he turned to look at him. "Where're you off to now? I thought we had our fair share of fun. I even managed not to break anything! Not to sound like a party breaker – no pun intended – but I'd rather not push my luck."

Marcus chuckled. "Don't worry, Joker, we won't be dragging you along. In fact, this night's out is for me and missus."

"Oh! Right… kinda explains the suit. Not too shabby, though, Commander, if I have to say so myself! Our XO will surely appreciate it."

"Oh, I don't know Joker," Marcus smirked as he saw who was coming down through the CIC. "I think it will be I who will appreciate your XO's look much more."

Heads were turning involuntarily after the woman that strutted confidently down the path through the CIC. The click of her heels echoed through the suddenly silenced room, the high-heeled shoes accentuating her long shapely legs that shined alluringly from a light application of lotion. The elegant, sleeveless, form-fitting, mid-thigh black dress hugged her firm body tightly, where a very slim vertical keyhole slit in the middle of her chest served just so show an enticing glimpse, with an elegant pearl choker around her neck completing the set. Her chin-length hair was done up, looking luxuriously voluminous, and her face was made up with just a bit of light makeup, having such an effect that it left everyone stunned.

And her eyes were all on Marcus, like a feline tracking her prey, and they were absolutely glowing.

"Mrs. Shepard," Marcus greeted her as he offered his elbow for her to take.

"Mr. Shepard," she greeted him back with a beaming smile as she slithered her hand through the offered nook. "Presley, you have the bridge!"

"Aye-aye, ma'am," Presley replied, unfazed – about the only straight male crewmember who was.

With that, the pair left the stunned Normandy and headed for the closest rapid transit terminal. They spoke nothing as they descended the first elevator toward the C-Sec, just standing closely, almost pressed up against one another, and just basking in each other's presence. They wordlessly crossed the great hall of the C-Sec toward the readily-waiting car at the RT terminal, where he took her hand and held it as she stepped into the cab and descended into the seat daintily. She crossed her legs as she seated herself, oozing the elegant, bewitching refinement in every possible way, giving him a viewing treat as he sat next to her and activated the autopilot to their destination.

As the car slowly lifted off, he turned and allowed his eyes to roam freely and appreciatively all over her figure. She just sat there, head held high with a small smile on her face as she looked sideways back at him, letting him drink in every detail of her perfect feminine form.

"You look ravishing," he said as he took her hand into his once more, the rumble in his voice coming deep from his throat. "People were turning heads wherever you passed."

"Flatterer," she replied with a coy smile. "Words without deeds will get you nowhere. If you want to get anywhere tonight, you better act on it."

He smirked as he raised his eyebrow. "Why, whatever do you mean, ma'am?"

She sighed theatrically. "Oh, I don't know," she spoke with a haughty smirk, her voice sinking huskily low and gaining into a smoky bedroom flavor. "I think I remember certain commander promising to take responsibility for manhandling my assets back on the ship. He promised he would take a very… hands-on approach. And I am still waiting."

He fought down a grin and made a 'tsk-tsk' sound. "Is that a manner in which a proper lady should speak?" he demanded in mock-scold.

"Well, then," she said breathily as she leaned closer to him, looking him straight in the eye. "Perhaps the Spectre should do something about it?"

He chuckled deeply in his throat, the sound raspy and almost evil. She was being clear that she wanted to play tonight, and he was more than willing to play along. Even if he wasn't, he'd never say no to this beautiful woman next to him. It had become their tradition when it came to the first evening of their every shore leave – a wild and crazy night to re-enact a first date, a passionate whirlwind of uninhibited desires, then followed by a few days of slow and intimate lovemaking where they'd re-familiarize each other with the other's body.

Tonight, though, it was their night of abandon, and he intended to give this cheeky girl a ride.

"Well, I did promise, didn't I?" he said rhetorically, his voice low and dangerous. "Though I find it disappointing that you doubt me, ma'am. And taunting a Spectre?" He tsk-ed. "I just might have to detain you after this evening and proceed with instilling some… corrective disciplinary measures."

She leaned back into her seat with a smirking mock-scoff. "Promises, promises," she sang-sung.

"We'll see," he growled excitedly.

The car arrived at their location and landed gently on the landing pad. As he exited the car, Marcus offered a hand which Jaina promptly took as she climbed out, and they sauntered confidently toward their destination.

It was an upper-class club of the upper wards, called The Vegas, and owned by a retired Systems Alliance sergeant, Mike Dallas. The club was not elite yet, but it was heading that way _fast_. With the unique stage that played energetic vintage rock one could dance to, it represented a unique place on the Citadel that held to high standards.

The monkey-suit-clad bouncer the size of a boulder welcomed Marcus and Jaina in without preamble, and as they passed the threshold, the sounds of vintage rock and pop music welcomed them, and they cast their eyes over the spacious interior. The place was vast, spacious, dimly-lit in violets and blues, shaded in the corners, and streaked with colored lighting on the packed dance floor. People were dancing and undulating to the rhythmic grind of the rock music the band was playing live.

They were greeted by one of the hostesses who promptly escorted them to their reserved booth and left after she took their orders. The two settled in comfortably – Marcus taking off his jacket, and Jaina placing her tiny purse on the small shelf under the tabletop, leaving it open so she could easily reach for her light pistol hidden within.

They looked around, taking in the scene at the club, noting the fresh looks, sensible atmosphere, and positive vibes that permeated the place. The waitress brought them their drinks and promptly left them to their devises.

Marcus reached to the center of the desk and activated a sound-suppression field that every table in any decent club was equipped with. The field engulfed them, dulling out the music to a sufficient degree so that they could talk without yelling, and they looked at each other and sipped their drinks.

They didn't speak. They didn't have to. This wasn't some first date for the two to build rapport and find out more about each other; they knew everything there was to be known about each other. No words were needed. It was just two people enjoying each other's presence in contentment, just sharing volumes of feelings through their eyes alone.

A smile of barely-contained eagerness graced Jaina's face as she locked eyes with him, and he knew he sported a smile of his own. He couldn't help it. This night was their first night together in almost a month; he was going to enjoy every last second of it with her.

He just couldn't wrap his head around how good she looked tonight, and how that smile of hers got to him so. Maybe it was the time they'd spent apart, or maybe it was simply because she took all of that space in the depths of his heart, but all he could really see was her. And now, just like any other time she looked at him, he felt as though she had reached into his chest, past all of that stony armor he had built over the years, and gently cupped and began to caress that dull heart of his that was helplessly at display; and the little traitor always warmed up eagerly at her touch whenever she did it, god dammit! And yet it felt so right.

Jaina felt excitement blossoming up from her chest and flashing up her spine, making her smile whether she wanted to or not. It was how he was looking at her – with that smile on his lips and those molten blue vortices in his eyes that made her chest flutter. And she was a hardened war veteran, god dammit! Yet she couldn't deny what this man did to her whenever he looked at her; whenever he directed that unyielding gaze toward her, the one that seemed to wrap around her, hold her firmly and demandingly, it was like she melted and molded to fit his needs; his demands. And it felt so right.

"How does it feel?" she asked him after they've spent a long moment just looking at each other's eyes. "Being the Spectre?"

He thought about for a moment.

"It's like two feelings are mixing," he said, motioning with one hand. "One part of me is like this… paragon of virtue, warning me: _This is the greatest power and responsibility for any one man. You should be careful._ Yet, the other part of me says confidently: _This is only your due, your God-given right. Take it, it's yours!_ The latter I feel with my gut and bones; the former I know with my mind."

"And what will you do?" she asked.

"You know what I will do."

"Say it to me, anyway!" she demanded with a smile on her lips. "I want to her it come out of your mouth."

He smirked in understanding, leaned forward a bit, taking her hand in his before he spoke.

"I will take it, and make it mine," he said firmly. "Just like everything else that I've made mine. My brain will do its fucking job and make sure I do it properly."

Jaina suppressed an excited shudder. It went straight to her primal female brain when Marcus let himself go and acted and spoke true to his nature.

"Bold words, Mr. Shepard," she replied coyly and smiled as she bit her lip. "Are you willing to show me a bit of that boldness down there?" She pointed her eyes toward the dance floor, then looked back at him. "Maybe it's time you spin a girl's world around."

He smirked, promptly standing up from his chair and proffering a hand to her.

"Let's go, Mrs. Shepard," he spoke. "It's time we remind ourselves of those dance lessons, and show these modern-day kids what real dancing looks like."

She took it his proffered hand eagerly, and they descended the flight of stairs to the dance floor just as an old 20th century song – of a dude that apparently looks like a lady – began.

They stood close to each other – his hand on her waist, hers on his shoulder – as they caught the rhythm of the song's cadence, and then they lift off. Moments later, they were lost to everything around them as the world shrunk to the two of them as they energetically flowed through the moves laced with erotic tension. Her body undulated seductively close to his, perfectly tuned to the rhythm of the song, her molten eyes devouring him from behind her auburn bangs, her mouth partially open as hot breath passed through.

He controlled her moves skillfully like a bassist as he followed her along across the floor, marveling at the thin sheen of sweat that put a pearly glow to her skin. She was so close, she was so hot that it radiated in waves, threatening to overwhelm him whenever her body pressed firmly against his, whenever her knee would rise and hook her leg against his… He couldn't take it; it was just torment letting her do it to him this way… and he enjoyed every minute of it.

She really let herself loose in this energized dance, letting her lust for him flow through her body, through the sway of her hips, through the press and the rub of her body against his, never skipping a beat of the song in her moves. She practically wanted him to take her right then and there, yet she knew he never would; he would always have control… a thing she loved him for. And that's why she could go all out now as they danced with abandon, celebrating their moment together as the song reached its final note, ending their dance with them tightly pressed together with her knee pressing at his hip.

There was a loud roar and an applause coming from all around, piercing through the shroud they erected around them. They noted with the sideways glances that the people had made a circle around them, giving them space for their performance so that all could enjoy the sights and experience. They must have made quite a show.

The music changed to one with a slightly slower rhythm, but much deeper beats that struck to the core, drawing out all of those baser urges with each bass – a song called Dr. Feelgood, the lead singer announced.

Jaina didn't care what the name of the archaic song was. What mattered was that it felt just right for the night as she turned around and pressed her back against Marcus's front, and they started swaying to the beat of the music, his one hand against her lower stomach, holding her firmly against him. She could feel him as she pressed her rear into his crotch, his hard flesh rising up in response to her; the ultimate prize she craved for this night – that she needed this night!

They danced for a long time, losing themselves in the abandon of the feel of each other's bodies. And it felt just right. As the final song drew to a close, they knew their night in this club was over. There was no way they could stay. The pent-up desire had been mounting through their sortie on the dance floor, threatening to explode where it shouldn't.

"What do you say, Mrs. Shepard?" he queried with a growling rumble near her ear. "Should we ditch this place, and switch the appetizer for the main course?"

A breath hitched in her throat.

"Give me a minute freshen up in the ladies room," she said and led the way toward their table before she grabbed her purse and disappeared around the corner with a smoldering look directed at him over her shoulder.

Two minutes later, they were out of the club and crossing the distance toward the waiting car with mounting excitement. As the cab started up the drive on autopilot to their final destination, she chose to ride sideways in his lap rather than the other seat and used the short time of the ride to re-acquaint herself with his lips and tongue.

She had, in fact, practically pounced on him like a lioness, her lips tearing into him passionately, hungrily, her tongue reaching to play with his, wanting to drink and absorb all of his essence in an almost bestial, overwhelming urge as her claws tore at his clothes.

He, however, held her firmly with his strong hands, twining his fingers into the hair on the back of her head, gently grabbing a fistful and taming her frantic attack into something more manageable. She was a wild, powerful thing, her athletic body that was capable of breaking lesser men in half now merely undulating against him, wanting to be tamed and controlled; it stroked his ego to think that his supreme specimen of feminine strength had chosen him as her partner.

As her feral energy slowly dissipated, he released his hold over her and felt it transform into something much more intimate, as her kisses turned very slow, languid, and sensuous, and lasted for long minutes, until they separated with a powerful, heated gasp.

"My, Mister Shepard," she spoke through panting gasps, her eyes blazing like furnaces. "You sure know how to kiss." She then gently began undulating her hips against his lap. "I wonder… what else… are you good at?"

"Something you are going to enjoy immensely," he rumbled bestially, as his hands slid from her hips to her firm, round butt cheeks, and squeezed firmly.

She purred as she delivered a languid, wet kiss on his lips. "Bold words… but can you deliver?"

"Oh, you're about to find out," he declared.

They shared another kiss before she smirked mischievously.

"You know," she spoke coyly as she trailed her finger across his chest, "that place was packed with young… * _kiss_ *… beautiful girls… * _kiss_ *… they were looking at you as though you were a god among men… * _kiss_ *… at _us_ … * _kiss_ *…"

"What're you saying… * _kiss_ *… Mrs. Shepard, hm?" he demanded.

"Well… * _kiss_ *… I'm just sayin' I could have approached any one of them and seduced her for us to have tonight… * _kiss_ *… for you to have both of _us_ tonight… * _kiss_ *… It'd be my Spectre induction present to you."

He rumbled through the last kiss before he broke it and looked up at her with a shake of his head.

"No," he stated firmly. "I wouldn't want that."

She leaned back a bit in surprise, looking into his eyes searchingly.

"Why not?" she asked sincerely as she rubbed his chest in silent support. "It certainly wouldn't be the first time; we had many hot girls in our bed together." She smirked. "I don't remember any of them complaining."

He chuckled as he rubbed her thigh gently.

"Well, let me slingshot something right back at ya, beautiful," he said. "Have you had another man since me?" he asked rhetorically.

"No," she said truthfully.

"And would you have liked it if I brought another guy for the two of us to ravage you over?"

"No!" she stated, shaking her head firmly.

"Why not?" he asked, homing in.

She smiled, narrowing her eyes searchingly. "I'm pretty sure I told you this more than once," she said, then shook her head. "It's because no other man out there is as good as you, Marcus," she said sincerely. "I met you when we were sixteen, and ever since then, no other guy was good enough. It took me dozens of one-time dates to realize it but… for me, all other men pale next to you."

He nodded, and then drove the point in:

"So how do you think I feel when I compare you to all those other women, Jaina?"

Realization blossomed in her eyes, and she felt his hand squeeze supportively at her thigh while the other rose and took her possessively by the back of her neck, pulling her gently in.

"There is no woman out there that is as amazing as you are, beautiful," he finished, piercing her with his eyes before pulling her down for a deep, soulful kiss that she melted into, returning it fervently.

"I never realized," she said breathily after they separated, and looking up at him in slight bashfulness. "I'm so sorry, Marc; it seems like I was being selfish."

He chuckled. "Well, I can't say that I was complaining," he pointed out, then went silent, turning solemn. "But those other women are ultimately strangers who came there for one night of gratification. And I don't want. If I am going to be with any woman, it is going to be a true bond – and I already have that," he said, emphasizing it with a gentle squeeze of her hips. "So no matter how much I enjoy those forays we do on occasion, beautiful, I don't want it tonight. The only thing I want tonight is to make love to my wife."

He finished by her down for a lasting kiss.

"How can any girl say no to that," she commented dreamily after they separated before her gaze turned mischievous. "But now I know what you truly seek, Mr. Shepard."

He raised one eyebrow in amusement. "Is that so?"

"M-hm!" she declared smugly. "Now, all I have to do is find myself a smart, intelligent, brave young woman – just like is your type – become her best friend, seduce her, have her realize she's already madly in love with you, and then the two of us are going to proceed with making you fall in love with her as well. And after that, you'll have no choice but to take responsibility of the both of us."

A look of utter bewilderment settled on his face before he burst into a hearty laughter. "Where did that came from?!"

She smiled, leaning down to plant a loving kiss on his lips. "Not your concern," she said.

"Is that so? And what if I say no?"

She tsk-ed admonishingly. "I'm the wife in this marriage," she said with a smirk, poking him in the chest as she spoke in mock sternness, "which means that you don't get any say in the matter. Are we clear, mister?!"

He chuckled. "Aye-aye, ma'am," he said before he pulled her in for another soulful kiss. "We are clear on that… * _kiss_ *." His voice then gained a guttural, bestial quality. "But that doesn't mean I don't get to have my pound of flesh off of you as payment for being such a smartass, Mrs. Shepard."

She felt an excited jolt flutter down her spine at that.

"You can't do anything to me, Mr. Shepard," she challenged through their kisses. "I'm the most amazing woman in the world!"

"No argument there, but you're still gonna get yours," he promised, and then heard a ping from the car's dashboard and looked outside. "We're here."

The skycar descended down to a parking lot in front of a large, classy hotel. A very classy hotel. Marcus absolutely refused anything less when he sought it out for their night out.

"Come, now, Mrs. Shepard," he said as she slid off of his lap and took his proffered hand. "It's high time I put you over my knee."

"Strong words, Mr. Shepard," she replied breathily, her eyes glinting with excitement as the rush flew down her body in waves. She plastered herself on his side and whispered into his ear, "I can't wait."

They managed to hold their passions off through the reception, the elevator, and the hallway, letting them subside and simmer just under the surface as they entered the spacious suite in seeming casualness.

Jaina's heels were muffled against the thick carpet as she slowly crossed the space of the living room, dropping her little purse on the lounge table. She paused in her steps, turning her head to look at Marcus over her shoulder with those blazing eyes, calling to him in a 'come-hither' look.

He walked toward her, shrugging of his jacket and throwing it over the sofa's armrest, approaching her and slithering his hand around her waist. She swiftly turned around to face him, flinging her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his as she planted a deep kiss on his lips. He hooked one arm around her waist, pressing her firmly against him as his other hand trailed down to cup her firm buttocks in a possessive, squeezing grope.

She moaned into his mouth as their wet tongues danced with each other, and raised her knee up over his hip, wanting – no, needing! – to be even closer to him. He spun them both around, pressing her bodily against the nearby wall with his weight, and she let him lift and pin her arms over her head with one of his as they separated from their kiss – both panting with lust and lack of breath.

Letting herself be pinned and held like that by him, relaxing into his grip, was an ultimate rush for her. She looked up at him lustily, openly giving him a look of challenge that both of them enjoyed sharing. Because it was more than just her wanting to be conquered; it was about him having and enjoying the thrill of conquering her. Looking into each other's feral eyes right then and there made it feel so good. It made it feel so right.

And he smirked.

"I believe there were some problems earlier, ma'am, concerning your improper behavior," he drawled.

She grinned mischievously. "And what are you going to do about it, officer?" she panted as he landed a kiss on her lips. "I'm an N7 agent. I think I'm out of your league."

"And I'm a Council Spectre, ma'am," he replied as he stole another resounding kiss. "My authorities are near absolute. I can do whatever I want."

"Really," she gasped as he descended on her exposed neck and started trailing sensuous kisses. "That does sound – ah! – troublesome."

"Oh you have no idea," he rumbled. "It seems to me like your defiance is a proof you're hiding something; I must subject you to a search," he spoke as he trailed his free hand up the inside of her thigh until he grabbed the hem of her dress, and then pulled it up over her hips in a slow, peeling motion.

The scent of her womanhood exploded in the air.

He reached down, fingers trailing with a feather-light touch over her barred mons and down to her exposed wet petals. She gasped with a sharp intake of air as his fingers made contact, her mouth splayed open mere millimeters away from his.

"You naughty girl," he spoke with a deep husky voice. "You _were_ hiding something. Or rather – lack of something."

"H-hmmmff," she tried speaking as his fingers teased her mercilessly. "How did you know?"

"Your little trip to the ladies room back at the club was a dead giveaway," he said as his lips and teeth found her soft earlobe, nibbling and chewing gently as she moaned. "Besides," he continued as he trailed soft kisses down her neck and jawline, "You could say my detective's nose sniffed it out. Others might not have noticed, but they're. Not. Me." And he finished with a smoldering kiss on her lips that she reciprocated eagerly.

"So," she said breathily, panting as they separated. "What happens now, Spectre?"

"Now, I'm afraid I'll have to apply some disciplinary actions against you, ma'am," he spoke with his lips millimeters away from hers as he removed his fingers from her wet folds and brought them up to him. They were glistening wet, coated in her thick juices, bringing the heavy aroma of her desire up to them.

Before he could bring them to his lips for a taste, Jaina leaned her head forward, and keeping her eyes locked with his, took one of his wetted fingers into her mount and sucked hard, her tongue trailing its length.

She smacked her lips and spoke saucily:

"You couldn't possibly handle me, Spectre."

He took the remaining finger into his mouth and tasted her heavenly flavor, before speaking:

"We'll see."

He then released her wrists, grabbed the hem of her dress and peeled it off of her and over her head. As she raised her arms high, he twisted the dress when it reached her wrists, trapping her hands once more.

She was completely exposed in front of him now, no underwear to begin with, and he took a long moment to admire her toned body, shaped into a form of a war goddess. She shuddered in pleasure as she watched his eyes roam appreciatively over her, making her squirm and undulate her body seductively in response.

His free hand reached up to cup her right breast, giving full attention to the bountiful mound of flesh as he began to toy with it. He alternated between gentle caresses and squeezes, feather-light tickles and rubs, rolling the nipple that was hard as a pebble between his fingers, plucking it like a cherry, and leaving her enjoying every single touch.

He then took hold of her and pushed her along firmly toward the center of the room, making her bend over the sofa's back, legs straight, slightly apart, and her delectable rear up in the air. She quickly began trying to straighten up, putting up token defiance, but she was stopped by his firm push against her back, and she stayed that way with her hands rested against the sofa's seat.

"You are mighty defiant, young miss," he spoke as he pressed against her from behind, one hand on her hip, the other trailing down her spine to the small of her back. "Looks to me like you might have something else to hide!"

She bit her lower lip trying to think of a flippant reply, to keep building up on their erotic banter, but her head was so damn clouded by the fiery pleasure that was spreading through the lower depths of her belly, and the excitement that was crawling up her spine, that she could barely think of anything at all.

"Your silence speaks volumes," he came to the 'rescue'. "Come now, spill it out!"

"Never," she replied playfully.

A sharp slap resounded through the room, reaching her ears even before the hot stinging sensation managed to spread throughout her right ass cheek. She moaned as clear pleasure surged into the back of her head, making her arch her back and push back against him with her rear.

"You'll have to do a lot more than that, Mr. Spectre, if you want to get anything from me," she replied huskily.

"My, my," he made a tut-tutting sound with his tongue as his fingers roamed her body, bringing gentle, unbearable tickling sensations everywhere. "First you behave improperly for a lady, then I find out you're hiding something. Then, you resist a search, and now you're openly taunting a Spectre. Haven't you been taught that it's not wise to defy someone like that?"

"So, what are you going to do about it?" she retorted saucily.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to punish you for it, miss," he replied as he trailed feather-light touches over the back of her thighs and hips, purposefully avoiding her bottom and the gushing womanhood. "I'll have to punish you _a lot_ ," he finished breathily as her scent was wafting directly up to him.

"I'm a big girl," she stated nonchalantly. "I'm sure I can take whatever you pull out."

He chuckled at the insinuations within insinuations as he bent down to plant a gentle kiss on the butt cheek he had slapped previously.

"We'll see," he said, just before a new slap landed sharply against the other cheek.

The space of the room then came to be filled with sounds of slowly repeating and resounding slaps, interrupted with feminine moans of pleasure with hitched gasps an occasional breathy "yes!"

"Is that all?" she asked defiantly when there was a pause at the tenth slap.

She was answered by a tinkling sound of the belt clasp being opened, giving her a new surge of excitement.

"Not at all, miss," he replied breathlessly, not from being tired but from the sheer passion that was coursing through his veins. "Spectres have many tools at their disposal."

She felt the first light sting, thinner and concentrated at one spot. The love slaps of his belt kept landing across her rear, leaving fiery licks and bringing her to new heights of pleasure. A heady sensation in her head was perfectly offset by the landing slaps, flaring her senses and making her squirm.

"I refuse to admit anything," she moaned after the twentieth slap landed on her reddened posterior. It was meant to sound defiant, honestly… but a clear tone of desperation cracked through the façade.

He leaned over her, pressing against her until his lips were right next to her ear.

"Oh, but you forget," he spoke huskily with a rasp in his voice. "I know your secret weakness, miss."

She suddenly felt his fingers sinking slowly and deeply into her folds, and she moaned knowing what was coming. He removed his fingers and brought them in front of her face, the aroma impacting deep into both of their heads.

"Oh, you evil, _evil_ man," she spoke, then parted her lips as his fingers neared, and proceeded to clean them thoroughly with her tongue as he, in turn, whispered in her ear:

"As you can see, miss, I know your dark and dirty little desires. And I have all tools and methods to exploit them, most of which you have not yet seen. Why don't you make it easy on the both of us by telling me what it was that you were hiding – since, obviously, the body cavity search hasn't yielded anything but this… delectable honey you're feasting on."

He pulled his fingers out of her mouth slowly, hearing her smack them with a pant, and then she spoke as he trailed the tip of his tongue over her earlobe:

"I was hiding the fact that I came here looking for _you_ , Spectre," she said at last.

"Oh?"

"I heard that you were the best," she panted as his kisses trailed slowly across the back of her neck, and began descending down her spine. "The best – ah! – agent… The best mmmfffmm… the best man there was. I wanted you… I wanted you all to myself."

"And there we have 'subterfuge' added to your list of misdemeanors," he spoke as his lips reached her inflamed rear and began depositing wet kisses. "I think * _kiss_ * that there's only one way * _kiss_ * that you may atone * _kiss_ * for your actions, miss * _kiss_ *"

"Anything, Spectre," she nearly whispered with need evident in her voice.

He promptly stood up and gave her a final smack against her butt cheek as he pulled her up by her shoulders, turned her around and embraced her in a molten kiss. She pawed all over him, heedless of anything in that moment but his strong embrace. Their lips parted, and as his fiery blue gaze pierced into her, she heard his voice laced with desire:

"Show me how good you are, agent!"

She grabbed his shirt and tore it apart like a tigress tearing into her prey, letting the buttons fly everywhere, and sank her lips into his pectorals. She lowered herself slowly, trailing hot kisses and fluttering her wet tongue over his defined abs until she sank down on her knees in front of him and her face ended up inches from his tented pants. She unbuttoned them almost reverently, letting his hard member finally burst forth from its confines.

She herself let out a sigh of relief as she finally laid eyes on this part of him she knew so well. It was turgid, angry, veiny, and it pulsed mightily in front of her as its scent entered her nostrils. She closed her eyes and leaned forward, finally engulfing it with her lips, letting out a satisfied moan.

Marcus groaned in turn as he felt her hot mouth on him, tilting his head back as pure bliss shot up through his spine. His big muscles bunched up mightily, with veins shooting out in his arms and neck from the effort not to have his release just yet as her lips went up and down, and her tongue trailed teasingly along the ridge.

He looked back down to where Jaina was servicing him and met her fiery gaze that locked him in place. There was that look in that gaze that spoke volumes, that thing of theirs that they just did when they sent thoughts to each other just through their eyes. Her eyes spoke of the lust she felt for him, of the need she felt for this, of how much she enjoyed doing this for him, and how much love was there just for him. And the sight of her eyes made it churn in the pit of his stomach that heralded the release, making him close his eyes shut.

Except that this time it didn't happen. Her hand grabbed him firmly at the base, pushing her finger into that spot she knew by heart, halting the flow in its conception. He opened his eyes in relief and smiled down at her as her eyes smiled knowingly back up at him.

He bid her release him with a gentle push against her forehead so that he could step completely out of his pants and boxer briefs, then moved to sit on a nearby armchair. She crawled up to him slowly on her hands and knees like a feline, her beautiful and still-tingling tush pushed out high, making a show specifically for him, but her eyes remained predatory, making him feel hunted, as if there was no escape from her.

She raked her dark-brown colored nails over his thighs as she went to work again, her mouth and tongue eliciting a myriad of tormenting sensations. She controlled him perfectly, knowing when to apply gentle suction and when to make it _hard_ , when to lick with the intent of heightening his arousal and when to just tease with little feather-light pecks and kisses. She enjoyed causing those sensations in him and watching his muscles bunch as his subconscious mind tried to halt his release, yet his conscious mind knowing full well that right now he was in control of _nothing_! Her skillful appliance of pressure had brought him back from the brink two times since he sat down, and he would have his release when she damn well pleased and not a moment sooner! And she wanted him to enjoy every torturous second until it happened.

In the end, after several long, delectable minutes passed, when he was panting hard and his member seemed to swell more with every passing second, she pressed one spot, released another, and held him in her mouth as the explosive torrent of pent-up stress, desire and emotions surged into her it. He gave it all to her with a loud guttural groan, yet never for one second did they lose eye contact that fed to their passions so beautifully.

She downed his essence slowly, savoring it, the thick heady flavor giving her perverse pleasure, and the amount of it just prolonging it more until the last speck of it was gone.

He leaned forward suddenly then, grabbing a fistful of her hair on the back of her head in a firm yet gentle hold, and tilted her head back as he leaned down and planted a strong kiss on her lips, taking his pleasure from her and letting their tongues dance together as she snaked her arms around his neck, holding him tightly against her.

He reached with his arms under her butt then and lifted her up with him, her legs clenching around his waist tightly as she hugged him, still maintaining that kiss. He turned, blind and uncaring to his surroundings, and carried her toward the bedroom, bumping furniture along the way and a wall or two until they found their way. Eyesight was not as important as that kiss.

He laid her on the bed and climbed on top of her, trailing kisses across her neck. She craned it, giving him full access and letting her hands fall to either side of her head, giving him leeway do with her whatever and in whatever way that he pleased, to tease her and elicit more of the moans that already permeated the room.

He descended slowly between her collarbones, stopping when he reached the valley between her breasts that he then reached up to gently massage with his calloused paws, yet leaving the nipples untouched. His manhandling of her beautiful female mounds had cunningly pushed the blood up and into her already stiff nipples, making them even harder when his tongue descended upon them.

"Yes!" she panted when she felt his wet tongue begin circling her left nipple, her hands gripping the bed sheets firmly.

He made a few circles, followed by a few quick flicks of his tongue, and then he took it into his mouth and sucked. _Hard_!

She moaned loudly, incoherently, arching her back to push her breast out to him, to offer more of it for him to use. He obliged by sucking in harder and trapping the rubbery pebble with a gentle bite of his teeth as his tongue flicked over its top. He kept sucking and nibbling relentlessly for what could have been many minutes to her crazed and addled mind before he switched to the other nipple and repeated the process, while he kept rolling the first nipple between his fingers to maintain and increase the stimuli.

Her body seemed to respond instinctively to his ministrations because she sure as hell couldn't think straight anymore. It satisfied him to no end watching this beautiful creature under the thrall of the blissful throes, and the passion that exuded off her; and it aroused him greatly as she writhed, the life and desire returning to his member in even greater strength.

He released her other nipple, at last, replacing his mouth with his fingers as he descended down until his head was between her legs and he was gazing down at that beautiful pink orchid whose scent permeated the air. He trailed kisses on the inside of her thighs, inching his way ever closer, throwing her into the sweet torment of expectation, and just as he was supposed to touch it with his lips – he paused for a split second! And then dove in.

" _HAAAAANNNNNGGGGHH!_ " she moaned, her voice rising in pitch, and hitching in her throat as if she was sobbing from pleasure.

His lips and tongue caressed her petals tenderly, taking care of them, cleaning them from the musky wetness that covered them. His tongue reached deeply in, scooping the thick nectar that didn't seem to stop flowing as he feasted on it. Alternating between licks and sucks, he made cursory excursions up to the nub of pleasure over her slit – just to keep her on edge for a long time.

She didn't know what to do anymore. The pleasure was coming from everywhere, and she didn't know whether to arch her back and offer more of her breasts to his fingers that were rolling and pinching at them with the pleasurable ever-increasing intensity or to grind her pelvis into his skillful mouth, to drive his tongue deeper or harder against her clit. The contrast between the delectable teasing he was subjecting her nether regions to with his lips and tongue and the rough handling of her nipples was setting her mind ablaze, making her writhe and savor every moment of what this wonderful bastard did to her. He knew all of her buttons and knew how to press and tune them, and she worshipped him for it.

As he watched and enjoyed her lovely writhing and staccato of moans that were music to his ears, his member had returned back in full force, and he decided to go for the kill. Focusing on her most sensitive nub, he sucked it hard and assaulted it with a flurry of licks from his tongue, squeezing her nipples the hardest yet, and a second later, he felt his wife's body lock up. No motion and no sound came from her; no sound at all. The only thing that was there was the rippling cramp that flowed through her lower tummy.

And then she bucked. A spray of fluid came out from her, and straight into his waiting mouth that he locked down over of her slit. Her unbridled scream of pleasure echoed across the entire suite as she expressed her bliss for the entire universe to hear, and she arched her back in pleasure that seemed to last, and last. And they both knew that it would be only the first one of many orgasms that they'd share this night.

She came down at last from her ride among the stars, falling limply to the bed and mewling contently like a kitten. Yet that feeling of content was overshadowed by the energized eagerness that rose inside of her, summoning forth another wave of arousal as she looked lovingly up into the eyes of her husband, and making her mewling morph into purrs.

Knowing what she needed, his raging hardness pressed against her opening and sank all the way into the scalding wet tightness with ease. She was rocked by a spasm of pleasure once more, her walls tightening and fluttering around him, sucking him deeper still. She came to feeling his lips against hers, and she kissed him back hungrily, tasting herself on his lips and tongue as he began with the slow pumping motion inside her.

She pushed him away suddenly, and as he slipped out of her she rolled beneath him, coming up on her hands and knees and pushed her butt up against his raging member. She reached back with her hand, taking hold of him and centering the tip against her other entrance. He looked up at her with a smirk as she looked back at him over her shoulder with lust in those glowing pink cybernetic eyes of hers, telling him in no uncertain terms that she wanted it done now rather than later.

As he reached around her, holding her tenderly as he slowly but surely pushed in, and with her opening up to him, welcoming him deeper and deeper, she felt a sense of content settle over her and mewls of pleasure escaped her throat as she surrendered to him this way. He held her tightly against his chest as he rocked his hips back and forth while she ground her rear into him in slow circular motions, and he planted tender kisses against her temple.

The passion they felt mounted and blossomed like something alive, drowning out everything else that existed. The room was gone, the Citadel was gone, the entire Universe was no more, and all that was left were the two of them sharing the love they felt for each other on this one night they had managed to sneak away from their duties.

And the night lasted. Their bodies writhed against each other throughout it all, seeming to never part as they kept pleasuring each other in ways nothing else could. They kept at it throughout multiple orgasms, until she couldn't orgasm anymore, and until he had no more fluids in him to shoot out, and yet he was still hard, and she was still wet for him. And when their flesh could no longer endure, when rawness caused more pain than pleasure, and when kisses themselves began to hurt, they finally let themselves fall into the peaceful embrace of the oblivion somewhere in the wee hours of the morning. And to them both, at that moment, all was right in the world.

* * *

 **Next chapter should arrive before the end of the upcoming week.**


	7. Chapter 7 - The Quarian Connection

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _Concerning the previous chapter, I want to say that the Shepard household dynamics are important to me. It might not seem that way, but I do want to spend a bit of time exploring what the two of them would be like throughout the missions when it comes to their relationship – how it affects them, how they influence each other, how they support each other through it, and how their relationship grows even further. I'd want it to be a slow and long process to span this entire story, and assuming this story is successfully written through the (at least) ME1 arc, I would like to know whether I have succeeded in that or not. So, that's another thing I'd appreciate if you leave your review about when it comes and you notice it._

 _As for this chapter, it, as well as the chapter after this one, will be delving deeper into the background behind the infamous evidence. As is my style, I will be making adjustments and alterations for the sake of plugging plot holes. And the circumstances behind how Tali obtained the evidence are actually a big one._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 10.12.2016.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy..._

* * *

.

 **Chapter 7 – The Quarian Connection**

.

She woke up when she realized that something felt awfully _right_. There was a sense of content, peace and she felt as though she'd had the best rest in ages. She couldn't quite place it for a moment; it was as if her own mind fought back against it, trying to keep the beautiful feeling unknown.

Then she felt his shoulder under her cheek, the warmth of his flank against her front, the firmness of his broad chest under her arm and his familiar masculine scent in her nostrils. And then she felt the soreness.

She was sore all over, in all the right places: her nether regions, her butt cheeks, her back door, her breasts, and nipples… even her lips and tongue were sore! It felt so good and right that she wanted to bask in it forever. It made her open her eyes, though, and look up to see him just as he too was waking up and looking blearily around and down at her.

"Hey – wow! – look who's here," she murmured as she rubbed and scratched his chest with her hand.

"Morning," he rumbled back as he bent down to kiss her. "How do you feel?"

"Sore," she whined cutely and buried her face in his chest. "This one will last," she added.

"Good," he quipped. "It means you'll remember me for longer."

She purred in response, then asked: "What time is it?"

He looked at his omni-tool. "Six-oh-two," he said. "We barely slept for four hours."

"Wow! And here I am feeling as fresh as if I had twice as much rest."

" _Penis bonus – pax in domus_ ," he quoted the ancient Latin saying cheekily, to what Jaina reached down between his legs and gave a single gentle rub to his john – eliciting a flinch and a grunt of discomfort at the sore sensation. He looked down at her with a mock frown and was met with her mischievous glint, making him grin and give her a peck on the lips.

"Let me send a message to Anderson to see what's up," he said as he typed the short message. "He'll be up too, about now. We should know what's going on today."

The reply came not a minute later:

" _Shepard,_

 _There's no rush today. I know you took the night off with Jaina, so you two have yourselves a lazy morning – you deserve it. I'll message you later when things develop."_

"Isn't that sweet of him," Jaina purred. "But I can't sleep anymore."

"Yeah," he consented as he cradled her, and she snuggled in closer – if that was even possible. "Feels good just like this, though."

"Wanna call the room service and take a shower while they get here?" she proposed.

"You know what – that's a great idea!" he replied and with that they moved to leave their bed.

Except he had to carry her since she apparently couldn't walk properly… or maybe she was just putting up a show for his sake. It didn't matter to either of them, anyway.

They took their morning grooming at leisure since the hotel's kitchen made their meals the old-fashioned way. They used the disposable toothbrushes from the bathroom's built-in omni-fabricator and then stepped into the spacious shower cabin.

They showered slowly, delectably, enjoying the feel of each-other's bodies under their hands as they rubbed body-wash into each other, shampooed each other's hair and just simply enjoyed themselves.

After they were done, they took their breakfast leisurely as they sat in their plushy bathrobes and read the morning news on their omni-tools. It was a simple, small delight of just being together that brought a sense of normalcy to their otherwise hazardous lives that counted, and made both of them feel more… human.

"The news is filled with articles of your acceptance into the Spectre ranks," Jaina noticed as she ate her honeyed and buttered toast while reading the news.

"I suppose it'll be big news today and old news tomorrow," he said dismissively as he tore into his full English breakfast. "What does it say about Saren?"

"It says nothing about his involvement in the Eden Prime attack," she said. "Though, it _is_ stated that he has become a rogue agent and that his capture is your primary assignment."

He chewed his food as he thought a bit on it.

"Seems kinda odd it says nothing of his involvement in the attack, considering the Council hearing was very public, don't you think?" he said at last.

"Maybe they're doing damage control," she replied. "Trying to play it down. I wouldn't put it past them that they never actually broadcasted the hearing. Their top man was accused, after all; if it was me, I wouldn't want to risk it going on the airwaves if he was somehow truly proven guilty."

"Makes sense," he conceded through his bite as he browsed his omni-tool for yesterday's broadcasts and found nothing. "You're right, the broadcast was never made. They probably only made an archive and buried it deep."

"Well, they can't burry Saren himself deep," she replied. "He's out there, and they see he's a threat."

"Our saving grace," he replied as he shoved a mouthful of bacon and eggs in his mouth.

"What will you do today?" she asked.

"I'll go down to the C-Sec and see if Garrus Vakarian's investigation has managed to dig up some leads," he said. "I also need to familiarize myself with Spectre procedures when it comes to working with C-Sec. How about you?"

"Oh, I'll take the kids to school, grab some groceries for the weekend, do some chores around the house – some cleanup, do the lunch, and when you come home after work I'll go check out that Spectre Wives' Club on the Presidium."

He looked at her with wide eyes as if she'd sprouted a snout.

"Got ya!" she grinned.

He released the breath he didn't know he was holding in relief and proceeded to laugh it out with her.

"Jesus, don't scare me like that, Jaina!"

"I need to keep you on your toes," she declared. "The Galaxy seems to be becoming a bit tame for the amazing Commander Marcus Shepard."

"Yeah, we'll see about that. But seriously – what will you do today?"

"Well, it's only fair for the XO to return to her ship," she said with a small shrug.

"Or you could join me," he said. "I'm sure there'd be some Spectre authorization that may requisition a whole person. We'd go investigate leads to see what Saren's up to; I'm sure there'd be some running and gunning. Whaddya say?"

"In that dress and those heels?! I don't think so!" she stated.

He looked at her askance. "And when had either being in a dress or in heels stopped you?"

"Honey," she sang out patiently, looking at him pointedly. "Those are ' _fuck me_ ' shoes, not ' _fight me_ ' boots."

"And don't you think that your looks alone in that getup could kill?" he asked cheekily. "You'd be an asset simply by looking like that."

Jaina was looking at him in bewilderment for one whole second, before she smiled at him, leaning her chin against her fingers and sending him a pointed, icy stare.

He raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, I get it," he said with a half-smirk. "A woman needs to look the part she wants."

Her smile turned from icy death to an amused one.

"I've trained you well, I see," she said warmly, then sighed. "Tell you what: if everything's green on the Normandy, and the Captain has nothing against it, I'll join you if you're so inclined."

"Fair enough," he said as he wrapped up with his breakfast. "The servicer tool must have repaired the shirt buttons you tore last night by now, _and_ cleaned the rest of the clothes up nicely."

"Definitely," Jaina agreed as she looked at the time. "Makes you wonder how young couples had to cope with restraining their passions a hundred years ago and actually _not_ tear each other's clothes off."

"I do not wish to imagine it," he said in amusement.

* * *

An hour later, Marcus passed through the door of the C-Sec academy offices.

"Can I help you, sir?" a turian officer behind the counter-like desk spoke as he raised his eyes from the console.

"I'm looking for either Executor Palin or Officer Garrus Vakarian," he replied.

"Officer Vakarian is currently out, I'm afraid," the turian stated. "As for the Executor, he is currently here, but you'd need to make an appointment – he's a very important and busy man, you see. There are other inspector chiefs available that can listen to your request, though."

"Can you contact the Executor and notify him that Commander Marcus Shepard of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance is here?"

That gave the turian pause.

"I see!" he replied in recognition after a moment, then pointed at his console. "If you'd just input your credentials at my terminal, I'll pass them along at once."

"Is that how it works?" Marcus asked as he activated and waved his omni-tool in front of the console.

"Indeed, Commander," the turian nodded as Spectre ID flashed on his screen. "I imagine this visit is for the Executor is to acquaint you with certain procedures and actions a Spectre can and should employ; this verification is but one of those. Now, if you'd just go straight down the hall and up the stairs, you'll be quick to find the Executor's office. Here – I've placed a marker on your omni-tool. You can't miss it."

"Thanks," Marcus said, then proceeded toward the indicated location.

The C-Sec offices seemed to be a very lively place. C-Sec personnel in their blue-and-black uniforms and armor were all over it. From what he could see, most were turians with plenty of salarians, though there was a fair number of asari as well as humans. There was one drell in police blues, and surprisingly, a few volus whose enviro-suits had official C-Sec markings on them. He figured the latter must've had jobs that dealt with hacking, e-crimes or white-collar crimes; it would only fit into volus abilities nicely.

There were plenty of civilians around reporting crimes, too. The place didn't differ from an average human police station at all, except for this place seemed more clean, more civil and somehow more exotic; must've had something to do with the pink jellyfish levitating around.

He reached the door at the end of the hall and touched the green hologram at the center. The door beeped recognizing his biometrics and opened up to receive him.

"Ah, Commander Shepard," Executor Palin greeted him from his office desk. "Please, have a seat."

Marcus sat in the chair on the opposite side as Palin tapped at his omni-tool and seemed to wait.

" _Vakarian here_ ," came the voice from the omni-tool.

"Garrus, Commander Shepard is here with me at my office," Palin spoke. "How soon can you be here?"

" _I'm on my way back from the Zakeera Ward,_ " he replied. " _I'll be there in less than ten minutes_."

"Good," Palin replied and ended the comm, then spoke to Marcus. "I suspect he'll have some information for you concerning your mission. Now, to the matter at hand; since you're a Spectre now, there are some procedures that are available to you when it comes to C-Sec. Your omni-tool, please."

Marcus activated his omni-tool and extended his arm toward Palin. The turian tapped at his console, bringing up a projection in the middle of the desk, and Marcus's tool beeped as it received a number of data files.

"These are all codes, frequencies, and procedures the C-Sec uses. As a Spectre, you are now privy to them all, and since there's quite a few of them, I suggest you examine them in your spare time in further detail. I have also transferred a few C-Sec applications you are entitled to.

"The short version of the matter is that you're now exempt from all intermediary channels. For instance, if a non-C-Sec needs to access certain police archives, he'd have to go through Citadel civilian administrations, who need to go through me in turn. A Spectre skips both, and only needs to send a requisition to the archives for them to send him the data – he does not even need to show up in person. It all goes through his biometric data that is attached to his signal.

"But that's just an example, and it goes far more than that. Essentially, you are at full liberty to requisition any C-Sec resource at any given moment – be it for an arrest, armed backup, sending forces to a specific location – anything at all. Concordantly, an opposite also holds true: a direct on-sight Spectre authorization can call off a C-Sec arrest, raid or investigation unless they were directly called forth by the Council itself – that's how we could investigate Saren in the first place.

"This extends to beyond the Citadel itself, of course. All of the Citadel species are bound by the Citadel Treaty to give full cooperation to Spectre agents that happen to be in their territory or request their specific aid. This extends to militaries and secret services as well – in theory, it means that someone like the STG group would have to open their top-secret files, and a space fleet would be obligated to listen to a directive issued by a Spectre."

Marcus leaned forward and spoke in a low growl:

"Are you telling me that a Spectre would be at liberty to order a fleet to bombard the very planet they were deployed to protect?!"

"Exactly," Palin spoke in a grave hiss. "Now you see why I hold such dislike for the branch you have joined. In truth, no sane fleet commander would obey such and order that you gave an example of, and even if something like that did happen, the Spectre who authorized it better have a _damn_ good explanation as to why he did it, or he'd be publically flayed alive. But how do you explain to the families of those people killed in the destruction of that space station, or in the leveling of that surface colony that it was all one man's doing, and that only one man will suffer for the thousands he killed?"

There was a blessed pause as both men absorbed what had been said.

"No wonder Systems Alliance has pushed for a human Spectre for so long," Marcus murmured. "With Spectres, the Council holds all the Citadel species by the balls."

"Indeed," Palin replied. "The diplomatic backlash keeps such things in check. Until yesterday, only people of the Council member species were ever granted a Spectre status. However, if you consider it, the volus and drell are essentially client species of other states – they have no real military power whatsoever, and the same can be said for both hanar and elcor. Back when quarians were still members, the time their immune systems needed to adapt to new environment prevented them from being Spectres. Krogan never even made it to becoming Spectres before the Rebellions began; they rebelled only seven years after the very first Spectre was anointed. And nobody was crazy enough to want a batarian Spectre back while they were around. Basically, nobody questioned why none but the member species themselves were Spectres."

"Until we came," Marcus said.

Palin nodded. "You, humans, are unlike any other non-Council species. Hell, you're not like any non-Citadel species, either – which is why I personally don't trust you. You discovered mass effect less than forty years ago, and you already have a navy that first surpassed Batarian, and now is equal to Salarian in size, barring dreadnought numbers. I understand that even before you became an interstellar species, your economy and industry held an uncanny similarity to the Galactic standard. Basically, the Council sees your armies and economy as something with great potential while not being as volatile as Batarians' at the same time, and that's why they're feeling comfortable in granting you Spectre membership."

Marcus nodded.

"I figured as much," he said. "Still, I never realized the array of Spectre liberties extended so far."

"Well, now you do," Palin stated. "The question is how will you use it?"

Marcus shook his head.

"We could converse on the moralities of Spectre decisions all day long, Executor," he stated firmly as he made a curt swiping motion. "In the end, that talk will get us nowhere. I've learned long ago that something like moral high ground doesn't exist. You ask me if I'll condemn innocents? That's just a matter of time in this line of work – you know it, I know it, and therefore I suggest we steer clear of the themes that are not meant for us, mortals.

"Now I'm going to tell you what I am going to do," he continued. "I am going to stop Saren. I am going to find out what he's doing and put an end to it, and I'll start by looking into what Garrus managed to find out in his investigation. I suspect I might need to maintain a longer cooperation with him. What can you tell me about him?"

Palin twitched his mandibles as he scrutinized him for a moment and then nodded in what seemed to be a respectful manner before he began speaking.

"Garrus is exceptionally capable C-Sec officer," he spoke. "He was a sniper in the military, turian Special Forces, as well as weapons, ordnance and tech expert. He was considered for Spectre candidacy, no less. You're covered on that part if you think of working with him in the field while you do your business on the Citadel. He's also very smart and perceptive, tends to find links in the dots where others don't, and has a good streak with that police officer's hunch. Like I said – all in all capable. However…"

Marcus kept his silence as Palin looked to see if he was paying attention, and just nodded for the Executor to continue. The Executor sighed and spoke:

"Garrus is a good guy with a smart head on his shoulders… but he is reckless and stubborn and often likes to skirt the edges of the rules. Ironically, that stubbornness is what makes him tenacious when he pursues his mark. His methods have solved many crimes, I can't deny that, but I fear that his recklessness might one day be the end of him."

"Does he follow orders?" Marcus asked pointedly with a raised eyebrow.

"Not once did he disobey, and I know he never will," Palin stated with complete confidence that brooked no argument. "It's what he does when you don't explicitly give him an order that makes my plates sag."

Just as he said that, the doors opened with a hiss and Garrus stepped in.

"Sir," he greeted him. "I'm not interrupting anything?"

"No, Garrus, I was just telling Commander what a pain in the ass you tend to be."

Garrus laughed.

"Oh, come now, sir, where would you be without my crime-solving skills?"

"On vacation," Palin deadpanned.

"But didn't you always say to me that work fulfills?" Garrus quipped.

"Well, as it stands, you will be working," Palin replied. "A lot! And you will be working with Commander Shepard here. I'd sure like to see how working with a Spectre will work out for you."

"I think it will be a pleasure," Garrus mused as he inclined his head respectfully to Marcus, who stood up and shook his hand with a smile.

"Is that so?" Palin chuckled. "Spectres have no rules they need to adhere to, Vakarian. I could never order you to work all twenty hours of the day – I had rules to bind me. Spectres, on the other hand, pay no overtime."

"Ahem," Garrus cleared his throat hurriedly. "Hmm, yes, well, we'll see how it goes."

Marcus tried to suppress his smile. "I'm sure we'll cooperate just fine, Garrus."

"Right," the turian nodded. "Well, if you don't have any more business with the Executor, we can begin right away."

Marcus looked questioningly at Palin.

"Fine by me," Palin spoke. "I have given you everything you'd need, Commander. If you feel you need anything more, you know where to find me."

Marcus nodded, then turned to Garrus, pointing with his hand toward the door.

"Lead the way, Garrus."

"This way," he said and led him out of the Executor's office.

They went into the main offices' work area, where Garrus led him to his work desk. He offered a seat to Marcus opposite of him, then activated his omni-tool and synched it with his desktop terminal.

"So, what have you been up to with this whole thing?" Marcus asked him.

Garrus sighed, and leaned forward with his elbows against the desk.

"Well, like I mentioned at the hearing, there was not a lot that I could do at that time, except send out feelers," the turian said. "Something like that takes time to pan out, but fortunately, I have a lot of contacts throughout the Wards and the Presidium alike. I've had mixed success so far, but some things had started to pan out since yesterday. It might still not be enough to find Saren, but it may help point us where to look."

"Well… even that much is more than we have at this moment, Garrus," Marcus said, leaning forward with his elbows against the desk. "We don't know squat about Saren's actions. Any help we find that may point us even in a general direction would be invaluable."

"My point exactly," Garrus said, then turned his terminal so that both of them could view it and motioned with his hand toward the screen. "Look here. There were no solid leads, but my guys caught plenty of rumors – and I'm talking about the kind of rumors that actually hold weight. These are the things we can use."

"So, what's the biggest point of focus we're talking about here?" Marcus asked.

"It's a recently-surfaced rumor that Saren used to do business for the Shadow Broker," Garrus said.

"Shadow Broker," Marcus repeated, leaning back into his seat, thinking. "I've heard of him through various Spec-Ops channels. Some kind of a… top-ranking information broker?"

" _The_ Information Broker, more likely," Garrus said. "He's the biggest information broker in the Galaxy. Nobody knows who he is, what species, or gender for that matter. The Shadow Broker might be an organization, even. He buys and sells information, always has info on everything, even some closely guarded government secrets."

Marcus nodded, filing that info away. "But, if he's as resourceful and secretive as you say, how did the rumor that Saren did business with him manage to surface into the airwaves?" he asked skeptically.

"Exactly the right question," Garrus said, nodding. "Something like that _wouldn't_ surface – yet it did, and multiple of my underground contacts confirmed it _as recent news_."

"Which means it was _allowed_ to surface," Marcus realized.

"Precisely, "Garrus said. "The bottom line is that all threads of this intel link and point to a volus banker that works in the Financial District on the Presidium who is rumored to be the Shadow Broker's agent. His name is Barla Von."

Marcus hummed pensively. "Something like that would indicate he's trying to lead us to him without directly contacting us," Marcus said. "Assuming what I say is true, this could be big."

"It's not our only lead to go on, though," Garrus said, then leaned forward. "I have a contact who works this little clinic in the upper Wards, Doctor Chloe Michel. She contacted me yesterday and told me that a wounded quarian girl came to her clinic a couple of days ago. The girl claimed she was on the run from Saren's men because she had some solid evidence that he is a traitor to the Council."

"A couple of days ago?" Marcus growled, leaning forward attentively. "That means she had that info even before Eden Prime occurred!"

"Apparently so," Garrus said. "She wanted to trade the information in exchange for protection but didn't want to go to C-Sec, since Saren was still a Spectre and could get to her there. So, Dr. Michel sent the girl to a gangster named Fist, because Fist was also rumored to work for the Shadow Broker."

"That's a bit naïve thinking from the girl's part," Marcus noted. "There is next to no guarantee that either Fist or Shadow Broker's agents wouldn't kill her once she gave them the data. Did you try to find her?"

"I did, but she has not been seen at Fist's base of operation – it's a bar called Chora's Den. There are several eyes and ears both in and out of the place at all times because of Fist's illegal activities, so that info is pretty reliable. Other than that, the quarian is nowhere to be seen. Probably at some of the shelters healing her wound if she's alive."

Marcus leaned back into his chair and folded his arms across his chest, spending a few moments thinking about the situation.

"Come on," he said abruptly, standing up. "We're going to Barla Von. That's the only trail we have."

"Right behind you, Shepard," Garrus said as he stood up and grabbed his service rifle, placing it on the magnetic holster on his back. "Maybe we should get you some weapons and armor while we're at it; as a Spectre, you can requisition some from the armory."

"No need," Marcus waved away. "I have a shielding generator sown into the back of this jacket – some N7 gear right there – and I never go anywhere without a sidearm."

"Nice preparation," Garrus commented. "What are you packing?"

"Automatic karpov, sledgehammer-class rounds with a phasic mod and increased exit velocity," he said, then looked at Garrus. "I modified it with larger mass effect core and arrays to double the output."

Garrus sighed. "How come we in the C-Sec don't ever get such toys?" he asked wistfully.

"Think of it as a challenge," Marcus said. "Makes you analyze your enemy, use weakness in his defenses – practices your cool. It's good."

"Well, I _am_ the best damn shot in the C-Sec," Garrus commented with a chuckle.

With that, they promptly went to the police parking lot and took a police cruiser, and flew off toward the Financial District.

* * *

The bank they entered was a relatively small place, but it was furbished tastefully in the business fashion. There were several banking clerks around, working at various terminals.

"Can I help you, officer?" an asari matron asked Garrus from a reception terminal.

"We need to speak to Barla Von," he replied.

"One moment, please," she said then made a call. "Mr. Von, there is a C-Sec officer with another gentleman asking for you."

There were a few moments of silence, before a classical volus hissing-filled voice replied:

" _Send them to my office, Mathena_."

"Yes sir," she responded, then turned to the two. "Go right through there, and it's first door on the left after that."

Marcus and Garrus walked to the designated office, and when they entered, they saw the most typical, non-descript volus waiting for them behind his desk.

"Commander Shepard," the volus greeted him. "My greetings. I am Barla Von."

"You seem to be well informed," Marcus stated.

"Information is my trade," Barla Von replied. "I am after all an influential financial adviser. _Kssshhhh_. And how could I not be aware of the first human Spectre?"

"You saw us through the security camera linked to your terminal," Marcus stated. "You decided to meet us here, rather than come to us down there, which means you have something important to discuss that shouldn't be heard by just anyone. So, tell me: why would the Shadow Broker's agent want to speak to me? And why send out all of those rumors of Saren working for the Shadow Broker unless you wanted to garner our attention?"

" _Kssshhhh_. Very perceptive, Commander," Barla said. "And right on all accounts. _Kssshhhh_. I am indeed an agent of the Shadow Broker, and I have both information and an offer for you."

"I understand that the Shadow Broker's information can be expensive."

"Usually it is," Barla nodded slowly. "However, this time the information is free of charge."

"What's the catch?" Garrus asked with suspicion.

"There is no catch," the volus replied succinctly. " _Ksssshhh,_ Saren used to do a lot of business with the Shadow Broker, but has now turned on him."

"Why?" Marcus asked.

"That information is either unclear or it is above my pay grade. _Ksssshhh_. Whatever it is, though, something absolutely huge must be at stake, because Saren's not stupid enough to betray a man as valuable or as dangerous as the Shadow Broker."

"Alright, I believe that," Marcus said. "But that kind of information has no value to me. If that's all you had to tell me, then both of our times were wasted."

"It's not all the info I have for you, Commander," Barla Von said. "You see, the Shadow Broker has hired a krogan mercenary to deal with the whole mess. _Ksssshhh._ This krogan knows who he's searching for, and how to find them. This krogan is a very experienced and shrewd individual. You, Commander, can find out a lot of info from him."

"Where is this krogan?" Marcus asked.

"He was detained at C-Sec."

"Did you see any krogan down there?" Marcus asked bewilderedly as he looked at Garrus.

"None," he replied.

"It happened only a few minutes before you arrived here," Barla Von clarified.

Garrus activated his comms and spoke, "Hey, it's Vakarian. Listen, was there a krogan that was brought in a few minutes ago?" There was a pause, and then Garrus nodded, and spoke, "Excellent. I'll have some questions for him as well. Hold him there until we arrive."

He ended the call, then nodded in the affirmative to Marcus.

"Detained, but not arrested," Garrus said.

Marcus frowned. "For what?"

"For being an armed and armored krogan on Citadel," Garrus said, shrugging. "Not illegal, but – krogan."

Marcus rolled his eyes, then looked down at the volus with a frown. "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?" he asked.

" _Kssshhh_. Concerning this info – nothing," Barla said. "But I'd like to give you a friendly word of advice, Commander, as you seem very perceptive about the shadow plays that are at works around us. _Kssshhhh_. The Galaxy at large is a very different place from the human colonies. Out there, you need to worry about pirates and slavers that carry guns; out here, you have to worry about the pirates and slavers that carry diplomatic credentials."

"That much was obvious to me, Barla Von," Marcus smirked.

"So it would seem," Barla Von nodded. "Take care, Commander."

Marcus and Garrus left the bank offices and hurried back toward the C-Sec in the sky car. Just a few minutes later, they were stepping into the C-Sec offices, with Garrus leading Marcus toward where the krogan might be held.

"Standard procedure would be to take him to one of the interrogation chambers," Garrus spoke as they walked.

"Or not," Marcus countered as he pointed with his chin at a small group of C-Sec officers in surrounding an unmistakably massive bulk of a krogan in heavy red armor, his hump towering above them all.

There was noticeable tension in the three-man group of C-Sec officers, as well as any others that were close by and watched warily what was going on. Two turians that stood in front of the krogan had rifles, with the human officer trying to show confidence even though he was agitated.

The krogan was obviously irritated at the whole situation, yet though he was pacing and glaring, he exuded calm and control that the C-Sec personnel lacked.

"Witnesses saw you making threats at Chora's Den, Wrex," the human officer. "Stay away from Fist! Is that clear?"

"Listen here, pup," Wrex growled in his impressively deep and gravelly voice. "You don't get to tell me where I can and cannot go. Fist's is a public place, and if I feel I'm being cheated for my drink, you're damn right I'm gonna threaten someone."

"You carried a shotgun!" the officer pointed out.

"So? I have a license," Wrex retorted.

"This is your only warning Wrex," the officer intoned threateningly. The krogan didn't seem impressed.

"And I am warning _you_ ," Wrex spoke as he got into the officer's face. "Do not waste my time or patience, or you'll really see what an angry krogan is all about if I lose it."

"Do you want me to arrest you?!" the cop exclaimed incredulously.

"Ha, I'd like you to try!" the krogan chuckled.

Marcus chose to step in at that moment. "It's alright, officer," he said. "I'm Wrex's lawyer."

Both Garrus and Wrex looked at him with confused looks.

"Show me your credentials," the officer spoke suspiciously as he raised his omni-tool.

Marcus activated his omni-tool, and his Spectre status flashed on the holo-screen.

"Spectre Shepard?" the man spoke as his eyes shot up.

"I'll be taking it from here, thanks," Marcus spoke.

"Yes, sir," the officer replied, then walked away with both of the armed turians.

Garrus waited, watching the three walk away to a safe distance, then spoke:

"You waited to do that, didn't you?" he spoke in a lighthearted tone.

"No comment," Marcus replied with a smirk, then looked up at the big krogan who scrutinized him from above.

"So," the krogan began. "What is it that you want, human?"

"I'm looking for leads into Saren's activities," Marcus replied. "A trail has led me through a volus banker, Barla Von, who told me to speak with you."

"Then he has told you of the reasons as to why I am here?" he asked.

"That Saren fucked it up with the Shadow Broker? Yes. That you were hired to clean up the mess? Yes. He didn't say anything else. That's why I'm asking you."

"Hmm," Wrex nodded. "The mess he's referring to is the collateral damage that happened in the fallout between the two big shots."

"Those threats at Chora's Den have anything to do with it?" Garrus asked.

Wrex measured the turian up, then looked at Marcus. "This pup working for you, or for the C-Sec?"

"This has nothing to do with C-Sec," Marcus said. "But it has everything to do with my business, and my business is hunting Saren himself. So, as long as you do not hamper my hunt, I don't have anything to do with you or interfere with your business, either. And, if you happen to join up, well… I've been told of something called the Spectre Associate Amnesty Authorization. I'd be willing to give it, as long as you agree to follow my lead."

"Well then," Wrex rumbled. "I wouldn't say no to that… as long as I get to finish my contract, of course. A man has gotta make a living."

"Fair enough," Marcus nodded, then activated his omni-tool and accessed the specialized application, and then he waved it in front of both Garrus and Wrex. "Consider yourselves Spectre associates for the time being."

"The name's Urdnot Wrex," the krogan said as he offered his hand, and Marcus shook it.

"Commander Marcus Shepard," he replied. "This is Garrus Vakarian."

The turian and the krogan just nodded at each other reservedly.

"So, will you tell me what's going on?" Marcus ventured.

"It's like your friend here said," Wrex spoke. "I'm here to deal with the collateral damage of the fallout between Saren and the Shadow Broker, and the gangster Fist who owns Chora's Den is in the middle of it."

"I though Fist worked for the Shadow Broker," Marcus asked. "Why would the Shadow Broker hire you to deal with Fist?"

"Because Fist did something very stupid," Wrex replied. "He decided to betray the Shadow Broker, and take money from Saren instead."

"Ouch," Garrus commented. "Fist was never a smart guy, but _really_? Betraying the Shadow Broker for a few credits more?"

"Not a few," Wrex shook his head. "Saren paid him a truckload! Whatever's at stake here has Saren agitated. The word on the wire is that it concerns solid intel on Saren's activities; possibly his base of operations."

"But, do you know whether Fist managed to finalize the deal with Saren? It means squat if I'm too late to get that info."

"You're not too late," Wrex assured him. "The one who has the info is this quarian woman. I don't know where or how she got it, but the damn kid's got the whole Shadow World upside-down! Pretty damn impressive for a suit rat, if you ask me."

"So, the quarian _is_ the reason for all this," Marcus spoke as he glanced at Garrus, then looked back at Wrex. "But what makes you so sure she's a kid?"

"Quarians don't leave their Migrant Fleet unless they're on this Pilgrimage of theirs when kids become adults," Wrex provided. "They roam the Galaxy for a little while and find something valuable to bring back to the Migrant Fleet when it's done."

"Looks like she found something, alright," Garrus spoke dryly.

"Finding her would be the ideal scenario," Marcus spoke slowly as he thought on it. "But I want to pursue alternative paths just in case. Fist's working for Saren now – that much is clear – so he must have some method of communication with him. I could use that."

Wrex nodded. "Saren only worked through his henchmen, but Fist would have means of contacting them. If you want to get intel on Saren's possible location, I'd try getting to his men. And since they're chasing the quarian, if you find one, you might find the other as well."

Marcus nodded. "Alright then; it's time we pay Fist a visit." He turned and started walking toward the C-Sec parking platform.

"You sure you don't want to grab some armor first, Commander?" Wrex asked as he and Garrus followed suit.

"Don't worry about it," Marcus replied. "I have personal shielding, biotics, and a gun."

"Hmm," Wrex muttered in acknowledgement.

The three didn't notice that human C-Sec officer who had spoken to Wrex previously and had been watching them inconspicuously from nearby. He raised his omni-tool, then tapped a comm address and spoke after a moment.

"It's me. The krogan joined with Commander Shepard, the new Spectre… No, I couldn't overhear anything, the Spectre has some anti-surveillance program active at all times, probably an N7 thing. Look, they might be coming to your joint, I suggest you make yourself scarce… No, Fist, dammit, don't try to fight them, you…"

The line went dead and the officer looked at it incredulously.

"What a fucking moron!" he voiced his incredulity. "Whatever. If he wants to get himself killed…"

* * *

Marcus, Garrus, and Wrex exited the police cruiser at the landing pad in front of Chora's Den. Oddly, few sky cars were around, and the few remaining were being boarded by disgruntled-looking people.

"Hey, what's going on?" Garrus called out to them.

"Eh, they suddenly called the closing time and forced everyone out," one not-so-drunk turian said. "A bunch of armed thugs showed up as if they're prepping for war or something. Beets me! I'm outta here!"

Garrus turned to Marcus. "Looks like they're preparing a welcoming committee for us," he said.

"Good," Wrex grunted as he cocked his heavy Claymore shotgun. "This will be more fun."

Garrus grabbed his assault rifle, while Marcus took out his combat pistol, channeled a biotic barrier on top of his shields, and primed his omni-tool capacitors for an EMP strike. Glancing at Wrex, he noticed that the krogan mercenary had a biotic barrier glow about him.

Just as they started toward the entrance, though, a couple of armed mercenaries that stood near the door saw them. The two yelled out and started firing blindly toward Marcus's group as they retreated, and finally locked the door behind them.

"Well, I say that gives us all the excuse we need to tear them a new one," Marcus commented dryly as he straightened out a bit from his quick crouch.

The three men quickly advanced toward cover on either side of the main club entrance, the vast combat experience of all three of them quickly becoming apparent in the way that all of them moved in quick, precise, and wordless coordination.

Throwing a quick, sweeping glance at the surrounding area of the doors they were approaching, Marcus immediately spotted the club's security cam that overlooked the main entrance, and sent out a directed EMP, frying the cam and blinding the enemy to their movements, with Garrus quickly frying the cam on the other side.

They planted their backs against the sides of the main entrance, and Marcus nodded at Garrus. "You got a flashbang on that police omni-tool of yours?"

"Bet your scales I do," the turian growled, his nose already in his omni-tool as he worked to set up the strike.

"I have some small frags here," Wrex said, opening the hidden compartment on his armor and showing a pair of small grenades. "Won't do much damage, but if you're any good, it doesn't really need to."

Garrus glanced at the frags, then shook his head. "I'm not even gonna ask how you smuggled those past security."

"Fine. Don't."

"Doesn't matter," Marcus said, "it works to our advantage. Garrus, as soon as the doors are open, you and I will launch our flashbangs," he said, flicking his omni-tool ready. "As soon as they're off, you launch your frags, Wrex. As soon as _those_ are off, you're storming in first with me right on your tail. I'll do a biotic charge toward the first target of opportunity I see on the other side, and I'll strike from there as soon as I'm secure."

"Got it," the battlemaster rumbled.

"Garrus, your task is to snipe at the enemy from right here and provide cover for both me and Wrex against any of the enemies not stunned by the bangs – keep them off our backs until we gain a foothold. When we do, you reposition. Understood?"

"Got it," the turian barked.

Marcus nodded and placed his omni-tool against the main doors and let the electronic/electric attack eat its way through the door systems. Muffled shouts came from behind the door as the mercenaries noticed what was happening.

Within seconds, the door opened, and a flurry of enemy bullets surged their way, the myriad of rounds ringing as they ricocheted off of floor and metal doorframe as the enemy fired blindly.

Cashing in on the fact, Marcus and Garrus flunked their wrists over the doorframe's edge, launching a pair of pill-sized pellets from their omni-tools and letting it sail into the club. A second later, the pellets burst, fragmenting into hundreds of smaller shards, spreading them like fireworks through the entirety of the club's main lounge before each of them burst into a small star that blinded and deafened everyone in range.

The hailstorm of bullets stopped, being replaced by shouts of surprise, pain, and panic before Wrex stepped out, throwing a pair of frag grenades into the thickest throngs he spotted. The explosions went off, and then a thunderous burst of Wrex's Claymore overpowered all sound, sending a carnage round into the closest group, detonating it against the hapless thug it collided with and blasting him apart limb from limb as heavy pellets maimed everyone around in a wave of screaming.

Before anyone managed to shake off the effects of the flashbang sufficiently to realize what had happened, Marcus biotically charged upward, slamming into the merc that stood on the circular balcony above the bar and sending him flying into the far wall. Not hesitating, he spun and vaulted off of the balcony down into cover, slinging a biotic bolt in midair into the midst of the group of enemies that were hiding behind the bar, knocking them out of the cover where a quick bullet to the head from Garrus's rifle ended them.

From his crouch behind the bar, Marcus launched his arm up over the edge of his cover, sending an EMP blast and sparking the shields and weapons of several mercs, getting them immediately riddled with holes by controlled bursts from Garrus's rifle.

Wrex's shotgun kept thundering as the battlemaster advanced relentlessly through the club's interior, tactically zigzagging from cover to cover – but only so much to sidestep the enemy's shots rather than hiding – the barks of his shotgun coming in even timespans, each perfectly timed to his heat sink's cooldown, and each of the shots taking its deadly toll on the enemy. Any of the mercs that tried getting into cover was quickly flushed by Marcus' shockwaves and leveled by Garrus's concussive shots that sent them flying through the air like clay pigeons for the shooting.

Bullets, shockwaves, concussions, and detonations joined in a spectacular thunderous crescendo that rocked the floor and reverberated in the air as the desperate screams of the enemy were violently extinguished.

And then, there was silence for a moment.

"It was a good combat practice," Wrex stated with a content smirk.

"The C-Sec will have a hell of a job cleaning this up," Garrus commented as he joined both him and Marcus.

"Come on," Marcus said, nodding toward the side exit that could only lead toward the offices.

They advanced tactically through the entrance, only to level their guns onto a pair of cowering workers.

"Don't shoot, Jesus Christ!" they called out in panic with their hands raised up from where they hid behind some crates.

Marcus just motioned with his head for them to make themselves scarce, and the two men scrambled and ran off.

"Your kind tends to be easily scared, Shepard," Wrex commented.

"Comes with pampered life," Marcus said. "Colonists tend to be a bit harder around the edges, but the Earth middle class?" he shook his head. "They better hope no war ever comes to Earth; they're so pampered they'd be chickens to the slaughter. Come on."

They advanced with their weapons drawn down the hallway toward a side-set doorway – the only unchecked one remaining – when suddenly, the doors opened to a pair of objects that skipped off of the ground.

Recognizing the frag grenades, a spike of adrenaline slammed into all of their spines, with Marcus reacting the quickest. He stepped forth, channeled biotics, pushed the bombs away, and slammed the hardest biotic barrier he could in front of them all.

The bombs exploded, the fragments and shockwave bursting against the barrier, slamming all three of them back against the far wall.

Marcus barred his clenched teeth and shut his eyes tightly against the pain that flared in the back of his head where it had struck the wall. As he opened his anger-filled eyes, he heard a recognizable whizz of hover drones approaching. Next to him, Wrex growled.

"That pyjack is so dead, that once I'm done with him, the ten of his ancestor generations will cease to exist," the krogan rumbled as he stood up from his crouch.

"He's mine first," Marcus growled as he and Garrus stood up as well, walking quickly past Wrex and raising their omnitools.

Just as they did, a group of four combat drones hovered out slowly from the entrance to Fist's office, only to be met with an EMP shock from Marcus's and Garrus's omnis. The flurry of electric bolts danced across the drones' surfaces, locking the drones' weapons and scrambling their tactical targeting. A huge carnage round flew into their midst, exploding and breaking the drones into pieces of twisted and broken metal.

The trio stomped through the broken and smoking debris and rounded into the office from which the drones had come. The place was empty. Only a single overturned office desk stood at the far side, behind which stood a terminal with a large multi-display surveillance system.

Wrex nodded toward the overturned desk, and Marcus channeled his biotics, launching a shockwave centered straight behind the desk. With a whoomping sound of a biotic displacement, a lone human figure was launched into the air from behind the desk and thrown violently against the monitoring displays, shattering several of them in the process and knocking the gun from his hand.

The man slid down onto the ground, the air knocked out from his lungs and looked up at the approaching men in helpless panic.

"How do _you_ like being thrown against the wall for a change?" Marcus asked coldly as he leveled his gun at Fist's face.

"N… nuh… No!" he called in panic, fighting to regain his air. "D-don't shoot… I surrender!"

Marcus just stood over him menacingly, not uttering anything for a few moments and just scrutinizing the man in front of him. He spoke at last:

"You will tell me everything you know about this whole situation with Saren."

"Alright! Alright!" Fist called hysterically. "It's all because of this quarian girl! She appeared a couple of days ago, wanting to cut a deal with the Shadow Broker, to trade information on Saren in exchange for protection from him! I had dealt with Saren before, so when I contacted him, he offered me a better deal – that's what caused the entire fallout."

"Where's the girl now?"

"Third back alley behind Lower Markets," he replied quickly.

Marcus just looked Fist in the eyes in silence. Fist began to shrink into himself.

"I don't believe you," Marcus said, then aimed his gun at Fist's leg.

"NOOOOOI'LLPROVEIT!" Fist cried out, raising his palm in futile defense. He panted for a few moments as if making sure he was still alive, and then shakily activated his omni-tool. "I have a cam recording of the conversation! It happened in this very office, you'll see! It's all there, honest!"

Shepard sought out the camera with his eyes, finding it in the corner.

"Garrus, track where that thing's server is and strip it of any data you can. Delete local copy."

Garrus complied, activating his C-Sec apps and beginning his tracking and sweeps.

"Here!" Fist raised his omni-tool as the video played out.

It was a recording of his office cam alright, and Marcus saw the quarian girl for the first time.

" _Have you arranged the meeting?_ " she asked in a slightly odd, but pleasantly exotic lilt.

" _Yeah,_ " came Fists ugly gangster speech. " _You know those back alleys behind Lower Markets on these wards? It's gonna be today at noon, right at the center of the third alley, next to the structural pillar._ "

Marcus looked at the time, noting they didn't have a lot of it to spare.

" _Will the Shadow Broker appear personally? There won't be any deal otherwise_ ," she said, trying to put on a strong, determined façade. It sounded good, but Marcus knew when it was being forced.

" _Of course he will be,_ " Fist ensured her.

Wrex then spoke up:

"Meeting with the Shadow Broker in person? Impossible! He refuses all person-to-person contacts, and when he speaks, his voice is heavily modulated. Not even his closest henchmen know what he looks like."

"She didn't know that," Fist said. "I told her that he'll be there, but when she shows up, it will be Saren's men waiting for her."

Marcus's face was a mask of calm, but his voice had a deathly edge to it:

"So, you've just sent a kid who only wanted to be safe from harm right into the hands of her pursuers. I don't believe in heaven or hell, but I sure hope the latter will appear just for you. Garrus, you done?"

"Done," came a grim answer.

"Then we're done here," Marcus said as he looked pointedly at Wrex.

The krogan leveled his massive Claymore shotgun at Fist.

"NO –" **BOOM!** And Fist's head was gone. The lifeless body slumped on the floor, oozing bodily fluids.

"Come on," Shepard called as he turned and moved at a brisk pace toward the exit. "We've gotta save that quarian!"

They trotted through the wrecked bar, jumping over and around the growing pools of blood and numerous debris as they neared the exit. Just as they exited the club, though, they came head on upon three C-Sec officers that were fast on approach from their police cruiser with their guns raised.

"Freeze!" the salarian shouted as he leveled his rifle at them, and then his eyes widened at recognition. "Vakarian?! What is going on here?"

Marcus raised his omni-tool and broadcasted his Spectre status, making the officers' omni-tools light up in recognition and display a blue Spectre symbol.

"Spectre business," he called out. "These men are with me. You three proceed with securing the area! The three of us need to go and rescue someone, _a.s.a.p._!"

"U-understood, Spectre," The salarian nodded as he fought down his surprise.

With Chora's Den not being too far away from the Lower Markets and by extension the back alleys in question, the three men eschewed the use of a skycar and ran at full speed directly toward their intended goal. Being of the naturally fast species, Garrus took up a light pace so that the other two could keep up. Being a krogan – a species that liked charging and bulldozing head-on through everything – Wrex had it easy maintaining a powerful sprint, with Marcus, as a human, only managing to keep up because of his genetic augmentations.

In less than a minute, the three of them covered the five hundred meter dash and rounded into the alley in question, entering what was a poorly-lit place, with red lighting dominating the area. It seemed to be broad, long and had a very high ceiling, with almost no people to be seen, and with certainly no stores or holo-commercials on the walls. Marcus's head shot left and right as his eyes searched for the quarian girl through the dim light until he finally saw her near the structural pillar that marked the center of the alley.

And there were people already with her.

"There!" Marcus called and sprinted toward them, trying to get to them before anything happened, when he saw the quarian suddenly throw something into the group of men and dive into the nearby cover.

A small explosion rocked the alley, knocking several of the assailants down, and to Marcus's surprise, the little quarian pulled out a shotgun and started laying waste to her enemies as her cover began to be peppered with bullets.

"Help her!" he shouted. "But keep some of them alive for questioning."

The three men dove head-on into battle, sending bullets, biotics and tech disruptions the enemy's way. A group of several more hostiles – a mix of salarians and turians – ran out from the shadows on the opposite side, reinforcing the few that still fought, but Marcus's team tore into the increasing enemy numbers with staggering force.

As he advanced tactically from cover to cover with Garrus and Wrex at his side, he noticed with satisfaction that the team worked with superb, almost innate coordination – covering each other, advancing sequentially without so much as a word uttered or a motion of command, and coordinating their advance to perfection.

As the last enemy fell to a concussive shot from Garrus's rifle, Marcus turned toward the two men and reviewed their state. Garrus held a mask of professional calm, but his stance was alert and ready, while Wrex was veritably smiling.

"Hahahaaa!" the big krogan laughed with a rumble. "I haven't had a mission this entertaining in a while! I was beginning to worry things were dulling down in the mercenary world."

Marcus turned to see where the quarian was and saw her pointing her gun nervously at him from behind her cover.

"Not that I'm not grateful for obviously helping me," she spoke loudly and clearly, with distrust and fear clearly etched in her voice, "but how do I know you won't attack me too as soon as my back is turned? I trusted Fist and the bosh'tet set me up. Those were Saren's men! How do I know you're not working for any one of them?"

"Because I am Commander Marcus Shepard, Alliance Navy, and a Spectre," he replied, holstering his gun and raising his omni-tool, his credentials flashing brightly for her to see. "Saren and all of his accomplices are the enemies of the Alliance and the Citadel. I was tasked by the Council to hunt him down, and I came to the information that you might be able to help with that. I can offer you full protection, miss…?"

There was a short pause as he watched the girl's body language perk-up at his declaration – the fear that she had to live with for days now being replaced by hope and relief that someone had actually come to get her out of this whole mess.

"My name is Tali," she said at last as she lowered her weapon. "Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

Marcus nodded, giving her a small smile.

"Nice to meet you, miss Rayya."

"Um… It's 'miss Zorah' actually," she clarified. "Rayya is the ship I hail from."

"Alright then, miss Zorah," Marcus inclined his head. "Would you be willing to share whatever it is that you've found on Saren with me? I'm more than willing to provide protection for you."

"That would be much appreciated," she replied with relief. "Thank you. I will help you."

Just then, Marcus noticed a group of C-Sec personnel in the distance running toward them. He raised his omni-tool and broadcasted his Spectre status as the C-Sec approached, and it pinged off of their omni-tools.

"Spectre?" an asari maiden spoke up in surprise as she trotted up to them. "What is going on here?"

"Long story, officer…?"

"Inspector Lynissa," she replied. "I'm in charge of this group."

"Inspector Lynissa, all of the downed men are confirmed to have terrorist ties," Marcus declared. "Some of them should be alive, and they are to be captured and secured for interrogation. This is high-profile, Inspector; notify Executor Palin as well."

"By your word, Spectre," Lynissa said, then went on to direct her people.

Marcus turned to Garrus and Wrex, and as he looked them over, he spoke:

"Well, I have to say this mission was a total success. Pretty damn solid fighting we did there!"

"It sure was!" Wrex rumbled, then looked to Garrus, giving him a careful once-over. "Even you seemed not so bad yourself, being a turian. In any case, Shepard, it sure was fun working with you. You ever need a hired gun, count me in."

"I sure as hell won't say no to having a krogan battlemaster on my side," Marcus commented. "I have to see how this whole thing with Saren will pan out. Where will you be?"

"I'll be here at the Citadel for a couple of days. The credits for the Fist's contract just landed in my account, so I'll go have a couple of drinks and relax a bit."

"You received payment already?" Marcus asked in cautious surprise.

"Shadow Broker has access to numerous intel sources – hacked security cams, eye witnesses," Wrex explained. "He knew Fist was dead moments after I blew his head away."

Marcus hummed, filing the fact of Shadow Broker's intel capacities away.

"Well, in any case, I'll have to remove the Spectre Associate status from you for the time being," he said as he activated his omni-tool and swiped it in front of Wrex. "But I'll leave you my contact info. I've got yours right here. If the Council grants me some funding, I'll be sure to know who to seek out if I need a hired gun."

"I'll be seeing you later then," Wrex said as he turned and walked off without any further word.

Marcus looked at Garrus and said:

"Take care of Miss Zorah for a moment. I need to make a call."

He stepped away, then tapped a few commands on his omni-tool, and entered a code for the high-priority secure link. He waited a few moments, and then an image of the salarian Councilor, Valern, appeared.

"Commander Shepard," Valern greeted him. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I have apprehended some individuals who are known to work for Saren," Marcus said. "I need STG to interrogate them."

Valern's brow ridge shot up in surprise. "You work fast, Commander," he said. "By all means, I will arrange it. Is there anything else, you need?"

"Not right now," Marcus replied. "I'll contact you if something of importance comes up."

He ended the conversation, and then returned to Garrus and Tali.

"Alright, miss Zorah," he started.

"Please, just call me Tali," she interrupted him.

"Alright, Tali," he nodded. "We'll take you to the Human Embassy. You will be safe there, and our people will be very grateful for the help; Saren has made many a human his enemy. Do you have any belongings that we might need to pick up?"

She shook her head. "No. Everything I own is always on me. There is nothing else."

Marcus took one quick look up and down her suit, noting how except for the few small packs on her waist belt and her weapons, she had little else.

"Alright, then," he nodded at last. "Let's get going."

As they started walking, Marcus's omni-tool beeped with an incoming call. He activated it, recognizing the number, and spoke:

"Hey, beautiful," he spoke as Jaina's face popped up on the holo-screen. "You wouldn't believe what you've missed."

"Did it involve shooting?" she asked immediately, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Lots," he replied. "Found some apparent intel on Saren, caught some of his henchmen, killed the rest – you know, the works."

"Dammit," she cursed good-naturedly. "I wish I could have been there!"

"You didn't have your personal shielding in your dress, honey," he said in mock admonishment.

"Hmph!" she harrumphed. "Well, that's the last time I'm letting that dress and those shoes stop me from having a shootout fun! You can kiss them goodbye!"

He coughed. "Now, let's not get too hasty there, beautiful, alright?" he said.

Her lips spread into a small smile as her eyes beamed mirthfully at him. "Hmph… we wouldn't like that, now wouldn't we? Let's say you make it up to me, and I'll think about it."

He chuckled. "You got it, gorgeous," he said, nodding before he turned serious once more. "Alright, so, what did you call me for?"

"Right," she said, turning serious as well. "The Captain wanted me to inform you that Admiral Hackett has just arrived in the Widow system; his ship is already on the approach to the Citadel. He's coming to meet with us at the Embassy for the purpose of finalizing the details of your new status."

"' _Us'_? They want you there too?" he asked with a frown.

"Yes, and I'm not sure why," she replied. "It's pointless to speculate anything."

Marcus nodded. "Well, in any case, I'm on my way to the Embassy right now. I have found a witness of sorts – a quarian girl – who apparently has intel on Saren. She was chased pretty hard, and Saren apparently paid a lot of money to get her killed, even though he was already exposed, so I'm guessing that whatever she has is still very much valid."

"Well, now I'm eager to know that intel, too," she replied. "Meet you there!"

With that, they ended the conversation just as Marcus's group left the back alley and went back toward the police cruiser they'd left in front of Chora's Den. He bid Tali enter the back seat, whereas he and Garrus took the front, with the turian taking to piloting the skycar.

With one final look to the square beneath them, with all the police lights and body bags being taken out of the Chora's Den, Marcus chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Garrus asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking that I was not a whole day into my Spectre status, and I had already used it to break half a dozen laws," he said in amusement.

"Eight," Garrus said, to what Marcus shot him an incredulous look.

Garrus just shrugged helplessly. "Sorry; it comes with the line of work."

Marcus barked a laugh.

"But, hey, you won't hear any complaint from me," Garrus continued cheerily. "The way I see it, you've made my daily job a lot easier, and streets a whole lot safer."

"Not a very turian thing from you, Garrus," Marcus commented lightheartedly.

"Pfft!" Garrus snorted. "Don't even get me started on that," he said dryly, to what Marcus laughed out loudly and heartily.

* * *

 **Really not sure when the next chapter will come, but it's safe to say that one-week rule applies, plus-minus two days, depending on how I chop it up. Also, if it so happens that I need to delay any of my future chapters for any reason, I'll try to post a note on my author's page.**


	8. Chapter 8 - The Evidence Trail

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE – Throwback to canon events in ME1 gameplay:**_

 _No matter how much I love ME1 and the world that it brought me into, the fact is that the damn lovable thing is riddled with plot holes! The most glaring one I found was the background surrounding the events through which Tali found evidence against Saren. Here's why:_

 _ **Day 1:**_ _Eden Prime attack happens._ _ **15-20 hours later**_ _(after Shepard wakes up from Beacon interaction) they come to the Citadel and have the Council Hearing. About_ _ **two hours later (a maximum of 22)**_ _they rescue Tali, who brings forth the evidence she found on Saren._

 _But that simply_ _ **doesn't add up!**_

 _The evidence Tali originally had shows Saren bragging about the victory he_ _ **already**_ _achieved on Eden Prime. That means that in the timespan of that 22-24 hours Tali would have had to first hear the rumors of geth in the Traverse, go seeking them, stumble onto some on some god-forsaken rock planet in the middle of nowhere (because – where else would geth hide?), manage to disable one geth and remove a memory core that holds Saren's speech about how he already attacked Eden Prime, then be chased from that planet halfway across the Galaxy and all the way to the Citadel, be wounded, healed, broker a deal with Fist, and be rescued._

 _All that in 22-24 hours? I don't think so! There was no way that Tali could have had_ _THAT particular_ _Saren's speech that was found in the game. So, I adjusted that. Among other things._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 14.12.2016.**_

 _ **18.12.2016 – Made some cleanups and extensions to a few dialogues for the sake of story clarity. Thanks go to all reviewers and PMs that have pointed out those things as not being clear enough.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _A short chapter, yes, but I really enjoyed writing about the things discussed within it._

* * *

 _._

 **Chapter 8 - The Evidence Trail**

.

Marcus entered the spacious ambassador's office, followed closely by the relaxed-looking Garrus, and the nervous Tali who seemed to look all around in discomfort. She was like that ever since they'd stepped out of the car in the Embassies District, and it only increased as they entered the Human Embassy proper. He didn't know much about the quarians, but he figured they seldom got the chance to be in a place this richly furbished.

"Ah, Commander Shepard," Ambassador Udina greeted him as he stood up from his desk.

On the chairs in front of him sat Jaina now wearing her battle dress uniform, Captain Anderson, and finally none other than the grizzled veteran, Admiral Stephen Hackett himself – all of whom stood up with Udina.

Marcus stepped up and exchanged a sharp and polite nod, then a handshake with the admiral, repeating it with the captain, and finally shaking hands with the ambassador.

"Admiral, Captain, Ambassador," he greeted them all.

"It's good that you have managed to join us so quickly, Commander," Hackett spoke slowly with a gravelly voice.

"Commander Jaina informed us that you didn't waste any time in pursuing leads on Saren," Udina noted. "Might your turian and quarian friends have something to do with this?"

"This is Officer Garrus Vakarian of the C-Sec," Marcus said. "If you remember, Ambassador, he was the one tasked with investigating Saren's activities that helped prove his guilt to the Council."

"Ah, yes!" Udina said pleasantly as he approached and shook hands with Garrus. "It's a pleasure, Officer Vakarian. Your help was indeed crucial."

"Just doing my job, Ambassador," Garrus replied. "Saren was dirty, there was no arguing that. Men like him are the ones who give turians everywhere a bad name."

"Garrus and I have continued the investigation," Marcus picked up. "We have managed to track down and find additional info. This young lady, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, was in possession of information on Saren, and Saren's men were after her. Garrus and I took care of the problem, but I want Tali's protection to be ensured."

"If you have any kind of evidence of Saren's activities, I'd be more than happy to grant you protection, Miss Zorah," Udina stated imperiously, then pointed to the nearby lounge area. "Please, have a seat, and we can discuss this matter peacefully."

Udina then made a comm call to his secretary: "Miss Durer, would you please arrange three additional refreshments, two of them dextro-based!"

All of the present people settled themselves on sofa and chairs around the lounge table, and then Tali began her story:

"It all began a week ago. I was with a friend. He and his small crew were transporting me from the Flotilla to Ilium, where I was to begin my Pilgrimage. We were traveling in his small scout ship through the Attican Traverse when we received reports of Geth activity in the region. Geth were never before seen beyond the Perseus Veil; I got curious. I convinced my friend, and we tracked down a group of geth on one second-tier world. With the help of our ship's crew, I managed to disable a geth unit and extract its memory core."

"Hold on," Anderson interrupted her with a raised hand. "The geth we fought on Eden Prime had all of their memory cores destroyed. Everything indicates that they fry their cores upon death. How did you manage to recover one?"

"Please, Captain, I am a quarian," Tali said dryly. "If one knows what he's doing, a geth can be disabled while it's still alive, and with a few proper actions, it can be prevented from fully frying its core. I was very lucky in that regard, as the audio module was largely intact. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky about what happened next."

"What do you mean?" Anderson prompted.

"It turned out that the geth were not alone. There was a group of mercenaries actually with them – could you imagine that! There were other geth with the mercenaries, and they must've been in contact with the ones we destroyed. They had all doubled back, and as soon as they saw us, the mercenaries attacked us! I remember them clearly calling out that Saren will not allow us to leave the planet alive. We managed to flee, but… it was a run for our lives all the way as the mercenaries chased us across the Galaxy. In the end, when I managed to get on the Citadel, only my friend Keenah and I were left; and he was too heavily wounded to make it all the way. That was how I found myself alone in this place. I just wanted to survive. And, well… you know the rest."

Hackett spoke up:

"That data seems to be exceptionally important to Saren if he had his men chase you halfway across the Galaxy in order to stop you from giving that data to anyone."

"You be the judge," Tali replied, and activated her omni-tool. An unknown woman's voice came through, chillingly cold and almost unnaturally devoid of emotions:

" _It is confirmed that another active Prothean beacon_ *static* _found. It is on Eden Prime, a human colony in the Exodus Cluster._ "

Saren's voice came through next, interspersed with corrupted data sounds:

" _Then we will act immediately. I will g-g-g-g-gather the geth and assault the colony as soon as possible. The Council must not get their_ *garbled sound* _on the data this beacon contains. I do not want them to find out that the Reapers are com-com-coming back to this Galaxy t-t-t to wipe out all organics once more. They wouldn't understand."_

There was a short burst of static, and the woman's voice returned:

" _Do you think that the beacon will contain the data we need to find the entrance point to the Conduit, so we can open the path for the Reapers?"_

" _It won't matter if I-I-I-I don't find the Cipher. Only the Cipher can sort out the images that the beacons transfer into one's mind – the first beacon's imprint proved it when I inter-r-r-racted with it. But I do know where to look for it. The_ *garbled sounds* _Corporation made a discovery on Feros they want to keep secret, but my sources have managed to get their data. This_ *garbled noise* _they found was there at the time of the Protheans. It will be able to transfer the Cipher into my consciousness. But the Eden Prime beacon takes priority. We will go to Feros after that."_

Tali cut the feed.

"That is the end of the data concerning Saren and this other person," she said. "He does not appear anywhere else in the geth memory data."

The rest of the room was deathly silent. Hackett was the only one who was taking action and had his omni-tool active as he typed the codes through restricted Alliance channels to warn of the possible assault on Feros.

Jaina was the first to speak up:

"Well, if the bastard wasn't guilty before, he sure proved that he is now," she quipped.

"And he wants to attack more human colonies," Udina said angrily. "It's obvious he is on the mission to wipe as many of us as he can – Feros is a human colony!"

"This concerns far more than just humans, Ambassador," Marcus interrupted him with unusual sternness, and his gaze struck Udina silent. "Now, I want to protect human lives just as much as you do, but it is clear that the colony of Feros is finding itself on Saren's path by mere chance."

"He has a point, Ambassador," Hackett spoke up as he ended his transmission. "And the possibility of an attack on Feros is not the only thing that makes me _very_ uneasy."

"You mean these Reapers that apparently destroyed the Protheans?" Udina asked skeptically with his mouth turned in a distasteful grimace. "We don't even know if that's real, or if it's just Saren's fancy."

"I don't have the luxury of ignoring something like this, Ambassador," Hackett spoke firmly. "I don't care if Saren calls them _Reapers_ or _Santa Claus_ , but when he puts them in the same sentence that contains the words ' _wipe out all organic life again_ ', that makes me _very_ concerned. Now, Miss Zorah, was there anything that could indicate what these 'Reapers' are?"

"Yes," Tali said and promptly began typing away at her omni-tool, displaying walls of geth coding and memory databases for all to see. "Here. This data that I've salvaged from other parts of the geth's memory strongly indicates that the Reapers are ancient synthetic species that wiped out the Protheans," she said heatedly. "The memory banks indicate that the geth consider them extremely advanced, far more than any current species or geth themselves, and hope that the Reapers will help them advance. That's why they want to bring them back."

"So why would the geth be following Saren?" Jaina queried in bewilderment.

"Because of this here," Tali said, shifting to another set of data. "According to this, Saren is the one who is in direct contact with the Reapers and works as their agent."

"Why the hell would Saren do that?" Garrus wondered as he looked to others. "He was always rotten, but he never struck me as crazy enough to ally with genocidal A.I.-s."

"Oh, but I know Saren," Anderson said grimly. "And I know exactly what he is thinking. He thinks that he can control the Reapers for the purpose of harming humanity. Even if he cannot outright control them, he wants to unleash them against us. He hates humanity and believes we should be brought to our knees before him. Collateral damage that might come up in the whole process doesn't concern him the slightest bit; I should know."

The other people looked grimly to one another. Marcus spoke up:

"Tali, is there any chance that the geth have been lying about this?"

"No," Tali stated firmly with a shake of her head. "While the geth do know the concept of lying, they do not do that. They're machines. The data they transfer must be always true, or they'll malfunction if they operate on false values! Therefore, they carefully analyze the data for its accuracy before they store it in these permanent database sections because propagating inaccurate data can hinder their ability to function. This is why I can state with absolutely no doubt that all data in here is accurate. Geth wouldn't have accepted and stored it if it wasn't the truth."

"Then the Council must be warned about this," Jaina stated, looking at Marcus.

"Marcus, didn't the Council offer to allow you to try extracting data from the Eden Prime beacon?" Anderson asked.

"They did," Marcus replied, then activated his omni-tool. "I'll contact them and see if I can expedite the process. I'll tell them that we have important new data that needs to be seriously discussed, as well."

He tapped in a few commands and then composed a message for the Council. Just then, the refreshments arrived, and the group took a moment while the beverages were being dispensed. Just as the attendant left the room, Marcus's omni-tool beeped with the message from the Council.

"They work fast," Jaina noted.

"Spectre messages take high priority with the Council," Udina reminded. "It goes higher than diplomatic channels themselves. What did the Council say, Commander?"

"They told me to meet them in their private conference cabinet in two hours, and I am to bring the information with me. After they review it, we'll go to the Prothean Research Labs to see what we can get from the beacon."

"I'll transfer the data to you immediately," Tali spoke up as she activated her omni-tool and synched it with Marcus's. "There, all done."

"Very well then," Udina said as he stood up. "I'll take immediate action to have Miss Zorah settled here in one of the spare rooms in the Embassy for the time being. Come with me, Miss Zorah."

Udina stood up and motioned Tali to follow him, and they moved toward the exit, with Tali throwing one last furtive glance at Marcus.

Jaina moved to whisper into his ear: " _You've made an impression._ "

Garrus spoke up then:

"If you don't mind, Commander, I'd need to return to C-Sec to file a report. I'll be available should you need anything, though. You know how to contact me."

Marcus stood up and shook hands with the turian, and Garrus promptly left.

"That only leaves one last matter at hand," Hackett spoke as he slowly walked across the chamber with his hands clasped behind his back. "And it's not a small matter, actually, as there is no simple solution."

Anderson had crossed his arms over his chest as he nodded solemnly as Hackett spoke. Marcus had a feeling something unusual was going on. A glance he shared with Jaina told him she felt the same way.

"However," Hackett continued, "the matter of this new information on Saren's actions only cements what we're about to do as necessary."

"What's this all about, sir?" Jaina asked. "And why does it concern my presence here?"

"You'll see in a minute, Jaina," Anderson replied instead of Hackett.

"Marcus, now that you are a Spectre, there are many things that you will need if you are to perform your new job properly," Hackett continued. "All Spectres require armed vessels that provide them with transport to their mission sites and also perform support activities. The Systems Alliance wants the SSV Normandy to be the ship you'd use."

A ghost of a smile crossed Marcus's lips as he nodded in understanding and turned to Anderson. "It will be a pleasure to work with you, Captain."

Anderson chuckled. "I'm afraid it's not that simple as you think, Marcus," he said. "I cannot work with you."

"Why not?" Marcus asked as he looked at Admiral Hackett with a frown.

Hackett approached Marcus and stood in front of him formally as he spoke:

"Commander, your new Spectre status is simply too uncompromising with standard Alliance Navy regulations and obligations. Simply put: your active service in the Alliance Navy will hamper your activities as a Spectre, and we can't have that happen. You are more valuable to Systems Alliance as a Spectre than you are as a commander.

"In accordance with that, the Alliance has decided to release you from all duties and obligations toward the Systems Alliance Military Forces for as long as you remain an active Spectre agent. However, not giving our full support to our best soldier would have been beyond unacceptable, which means that you will still be receiving full support from the military assets.

"In that regard, it has been decided that Captain Anderson will step down from his position as acting captain of the SSV Normandy, and the ship will be given to you, for you to use it with all privileges and duties of an _acting captain_ for as long as you need, or until you are no longer an active Spectre, or until the Normandy is no longer capable of serving your needs."

There was dead silence as both Marcus and Jaina processed those words, and then both of them turned toward Anderson and spoke in near perfect unanimous voice:

"Sir, that's not right!" they glanced at each other briefly, then continued, still univocally, "you're the captain of the Normandy, they're not supposed to take it away from you!"

There was a moment of silence, and then Hackett laughed – something few people had ever seen him do – sounding like a rhythmically grinding gravel.

"I have to say I found it hard to believe when people told me you two tend to do that," he said after his laughter subsided. "Yes, you two will be perfect for the tasks that are coming."

"Sir?" Jaina asked worriedly.

"While the Alliance can lease the Normandy to a Spectre, we still need it to be our crew on our ship," Hackett clarified. "And the Alliance also needs that crew to be the best. You, Commander Jaina Shepard, _are_ the best we have. Other than being his XO, you would also be a direct Alliance liaison to Marcus. Being what you are, a husband and wife, means that you trust each other implicitly – and that's very important if we are to ensure success since these kinds of multi-lateral missions tend to be filled with potholes. And it's even more pressing considering what might be looming on the horizon if these Reapers are real."

"Aren't you worried about our marital status, sir?" Jaina ventured, narrowing her eyes. "We might be excluded from the rules of fraternization now that Marcus is not in official active capacity, but the emotional attachment might compromise the mission."

"Stop looking at the gift horse's mouth, Commander!" Hackett declared impatiently. "The emotional attachment is a problem if the people are weak-minded. You two are not. If you were, you would have _never_ made the cut for the N7. And this matter is closed! Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!" both Marcus and Jaina replied in unison.

"Good," Hackett nodded dispassionately.

"I know you find me being relieved from the Normandy's post as unjust," Anderson addressed them both. "But this is far more important. We are facing a rogue Spectre, Geth, and possibly more. A lot of things might be at stake."

Marcus shared a look with Jaina, then spoke:

"We understand, Captain. It just doesn't make it feel any less wrong."

"All of us understand that, Commander, but that's just the way it has to be," Hackett said as he sat down at the lounge table, and the others moved to follow. "But now, I must talk to you about another matter of great import."

Hackett seemed to think on how to begin. In the end, he took a deep breath and spoke:

"Eden Prime attack was the drop that spilled the cup," he said simply. "For decades, the Alliance had fought a war of attrition against pirates and slavers, and now, not only do we have geth, but they're knocking right on our front doors. Eden Prime was the last straw; it was like a wakeup call."

"So, what do they want the Alliance to do about it?" Marcus asked, pointing his palm upwards. "We don't have enough ships or manpower."

"And even if we did, we cannot defend everything," Jaina pointed out. "The one who defends everything defends nothing."

"Exactly," Hackett said. "Which is precisely the thing that I spoke with Defense Minister Krieg about, and what he relayed to the Parliament and to the President when they asked us what needs to be done about it. We told them straight to their face how it is – that our predecessors had made a terrible error when they decided to compete with the Citadel Species gun-for-gun. Nobody has ever won by fighting harder; wars are won by fighting smarter. Dreadnoughts are slow, cumbersome, easy to cripple and counter when playing smart – which is exactly what pirates and slavers do."

"It was a lesson we had learned during World War II," Marcus commented.

"The greatest battleships and dreadnoughts of that era were done in by strike craft launched from carriers," Hackett agreed. "Yet, somehow, the Systems Alliance Parliament forgot that in the years after the First Contact. I told them that if we are to get on top of this, we need to change our game."

"But did they listen?" Marcus asked, narrowing his eyes.

Hackett gave him a look. "When was the last time you saw someone not listening to what Peter Krieg has to say?"

Marcus smirked, tilting his head acquiescently. "Point taken."

"Exactly," Hackett said. "I gotta hand it to him. In less than twenty-four hours, he managed to strong-arm the entire Parliament his way. A massive budget for military spending is being drawn right as we speak. And I am talking _massive_. They had given me and a few of my associates open arms to do whatever it takes to improve our military."

"That's promising," Marcus commented, with Jaina nodding eagerly. "But I don't understand why are you telling me this, Admiral? Parliament and Alliance Brass are above my pay grade."

"Not anymore," Hackett stated. "You are a Spectre, a human Spectre, Commander. We _need_ you to know what is going on – both you and your new XO here – because you will be a big part of the changes that are to come. Whether you like it or not, you are now a part of the circle of people that _need to know everything_ that's going on inside the Alliance if you are to be effective, because your presence in the Council represents additional foothold for the Alliance."

Marcus shared a significant look with Jaina.

"That actually makes me feel privileged to be a part of the inner circle," he said as he looked back at Hackett. "So, what are we talking about here, Admiral?"

"We're talking about a major shift in our entire naval and groundside military doctrines," Hackett said, then leaned forward. "Twenty-five years ago, after the First Contact War, we established our doctrine around the notion that it would be the best to keep our fleets concentrated on a few key points – a crossroads regions – from which we could quickly react to the changing situation in the surrounding areas, and that having a number of small patrols consisting of a ship or two roaming the regions would be enough for any small-scale attack. A few more important planets would have orbital defenses, but the strengthening of the ground forces was mostly ignored – as evident in poor armor and weapon quality – and civilians were prohibited from owning anything bigger than a handgun. That is how things have been until now."

Marcus snorted. "It makes me wonder just how many colonies were actually saved in that manner."

"Too few of them," Anderson spoke up grimly. "Mindoir, Elysium – those are just the biggest battles; the biggest losses and victories. A lot more colony worlds were attacked over the past two decades of our expansion into the Skyllian Verge, and it's always the same scenario: someone organizes the attack, targets the colony when the patrol is not around, strikes, pillages it to the ground, and then flees before any of the fleets can respond. Whatever defenses we have are quickly overwhelmed or downright completely bypassed. Our colonists get either killed or taken away as slaves. When our fleet arrives, all it is met with are corpses and some stragglers. Eden Prime was the last straw in that scenario."

"The Eden Prime attack had shattered our ground forces in less than an hour," Hackett said. "It just proves how weak we are when it comes to groundside defense – both when it comes to stopping the attack head on, and responding to it."

"You got that right," Anderson said bitterly. "It turned out that the colonists were the ones that ended up fighting. And that was just because they had smuggled guns!"

"And that's why the Parliament will be relaxing the laws and regulations pertaining gun ownership on all colonies to a large degree," Hackett stated with a nod. "That is their part. Ours is to keep it safe and sane among the populace. We will be the ones to organize all able-bodied colonists on all colonies – both male and female – into militias, train them, equip them with military-grade gear, and then send them home with it, while also holding frequent militia drills and exercises in various scenarios."

"And what about the colonial sentiment?" Anderson queried. "Are there any indications that the colonists might object to being conscripted?"

"Object?!" Jaina exclaimed, then snorted derisively. "I think not! I used to have been a colonist, Captain, remember? I remember how it was on Mindoir. I know what it was like on Elysium with Marcus. The colonists are not some pampered Earth middle class. They're hardy men, husbands and wives, parents with families… just like my mom and dad were. They're hardy men and women, and they know the score and dangers of living out there. You ask me whether they'll object to being fully armed and armored, trained, and then sent home with that gear? I think not! I think that each and every one of them – man or woman – will volunteer."

"I agree," Marcus said. "From what experience with the locals I gained throughout all of my missions, it appears that colonials were mostly dissatisfied with the Alliance _because_ of the strict gun regulations that prevented them from being able to properly defend their own homes and families. With the laws being relaxed, as you say, and with you providing weapons, gear, and training, I'll say that you won't have enough gear to supply them with!"

Hackett nodded.

"I'm glad to hear your input on this," he said. "As for the gear, we will have plenty of options with it. If the re-armament bill passes, then the regular soldiers will be getting the gear of much higher quality. Civilian militias will then receive the current gear as hand-me-downs. Not top-of-the-line, but if you consider that they were completely unarmed before then…" he left the rest unsaid.

"We see where you're coming from, sir," Jaina agreed, then narrowed her eyes in thought. "Still, I don't think we can use ordinary colonists as shock troops."

"We won't be," he said. "The goal for them is to be engaged in asymmetrical warfare against any invaders – to fight in guerrilla-style combat. With the majority of them armed and armored, we predict they would be able to harass the enemy to a staggering extent just by being able to fight back while keeping themselves alive and kicking in the process. The Alliance is fully intending to supply them with large amounts of infantry heavy weapons – those that are able to take down a tank or a transport shuttle that pirates and slavers use, and in this case Geth as well.

"So – no, the colonists wouldn't be the ones to perform the shock attack against enemies. That's what the battle mechs will be for."

"Now, that's a surprise," Marcus said. "When we enlisted, the Alliance Brass was known for hating the notion of combat mechs – a stance that I could never understand."

"Times change," Hackett said. "Too many lives are being lost, and trained soldiers are not something that can just be replaced. It has been deemed that we must develop some new tactics to avoid such wipeouts – something that can soak up the first blow instead of our men, and then be used as a tool to strike back. Mechs are the best options. And a lot of them will be deployed in the following months. Our top military engineers are already developing designs for cheap, replaceable and heavy-hitting mech platforms, as well as the ones that are supposed to be armored frontline shock troops."

"Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee?" Jaina ventured.

"I can see where this is going," Marcus said, leaning forward with his elbows against his knees and lacing his fingers. "You'd be combining the mech and militia like a mix of shock troops and guerrilla. You'd deploy a broad network of early-warning sensors throughout the system, and when the warning comes, everyone goes underground – both civilian and military. Once the enemy lands, they watch, wait, and then strike from ambush with overwhelming strength."

"Or, if the attack is too sudden, the mechs can serve as the frontline defense while the militia organizes itself," Jaina finished.

"True on all accounts," Hackett said. "In that way, we combine the prime triumvirate of victory: mobility, flexibility, and initiative. With mobile and flexible units we will evade the enemy, taking the initiative from them and transferring it to us for a powerful counterattack."

Anderson hummed pensively.

"Still, it would be only effective if the enemy doesn't have orbital superiority," the man said. "They can pummel any resistance within minutes! Long before relief arrives. If anything Shanxi has taught us, it is to never leave our skies unprotected."

"True," Hackett agreed. "Our engineers have been working hard to find cheap and efficient methods of disrupting the enemy's ability to see what's on the ground ever since Shanxi. I won't be getting into technical details, but one of the prototypes, codename _Sky Curtain,_ has shown great promise. Now that the new bills and programs will pass, more funding will go to it. I am hoping for the system's full introduction into our PDF mainstay by the end of the first trimester."

"And what of the fleets, sir?" Marcus queried. "It is obvious that our ships cannot remain sitting only at relay crossroad systems. The enemy knows where they are, and can plan accordingly. They can make a diversion – send our fleets on a wild goose chase while they actually besiege a completely different planet. That is what I would do."

"Which is why the fleet doctrine is being changed as well," Hackett said, leaning forward. "And it is the biggest challenge in this whole matter."

He went silent for a moment, seeming to look into the distance, thinking.

"What are you thinking, Stephen?" Anderson asked.

Hackett took a deep breath before he spoke, his eyes still searching that distance somewhere far off.

"You have two ships that are enemies to one another: a frigate, and a dreadnought. They see each other and move in to combat range. How long does it take a frigate to destroy a dreadnought?"

Marcus spoke up immediately:

"Assuming the dreadnought's crew are complete idiots, and the frigate has one hell of a crew to do everything right – hours!"

Hackett nodded, then asked, "And what if the dreadnought can't see the frigate _at all_?"

Realization flashed in both Marcus's and Jaina's eyes.

"The frigate could take that dread down in seconds," Jaina murmured.

"Especially considering that such a frigate needs to have a cruiser-sized eezo core," Marcus added. "Its main gun would be several times more powerful than an average frigate's is."

"Even if the dreadnought's shields were up, the frigate could sneak in and unload a hailstorm of javelins and main gun rounds that would wreck the dreadnought's barriers to oblivion just like that," Jaina said, snapping her fingers. "And the dreadnoughts hull would be gone even faster than that."

Hackett nodded.

"No matter how powerful a ship is, it can be destroyed," he said. "You can concentrate multiple-ship fire on it, you can ambush it, you can sabotage it, or you can completely avoid it. But if you can't see it, then that enemy cannot be beaten. In a war of attrition, the invisible one will always win."

"You're planning to push for more Normandy-class frigates to be built," Marcus said discerningly. "You want to make them our mainstay."

"Offence is the best defense," Hackett said as a reply. "And the Normandy-class frigate would stand at the apex of mobility, flexibility, and initiative in that regard. It could go anywhere, anytime, and the enemy would never know it until their ships start blowing up."

"Normandy was expensive," Anderson pointed out.

In response to that, Hackett turned to Marcus. "Commander, I understand that you have a unique assault rifle that you've built yourself. How many times has it blown up in your face before you worked out all the kinks?"

"Three times," Marcus said slowly, smirking as he was trying to discern what Hackett was going for.

The admiral merely nodded, and spoke:

"That is what the money for building the Normandy was for: to ensure the prototype wouldn't explode three times or more. Experimentation takes a lot of time and money. Now that we know the recipe, a Normandy-class frigate may be produced at a fraction of a cost. The only bottleneck is eezo, but we got that covered; new, large sources had been found in the Local Cluster."

Marcus frowned. "I thought Local Cluster wasn't particularly eezo-rich," he said.

"Guess again," Hackett said dryly. "What I'm about to tell you is classified as intelligence level 5. It turns out that a huge load of eezo was sitting right under our very noses."

There was a moment of silence.

"Sol itself?" Anderson asked in bewilderment.

"Io, the Jupiter's moon," Hackett clarified.

There was a moment of bewildered silence as everyone present looked amongst each-other.

"Wait, I thought eezo was only generated when stars went supernova," Jaina queried with a frown.

"No," Marcus said, excitement breaking its way into his stance. "Eezo is generated under huge pressures and violent collisions. Supernovas are just the most common source. But Io is closest Jupiter's moon. It's affected by huge tidal gravitational forces and Jupiter's monstrous magnetic field – which is stronger than even brown dwarfs – and has been interacting in this way for billions of years! It was a perfect eezo factory right under our noses!"

"Precisely," Hackett said. "Huge quantities of eezo are launched every hour through Io's volcanoes, and we've known this for a very long time – almost since 2148. But we had no way to safely extract it. Io is bathed in huge radiation levels, and volcanoes are erupting almost non-stop. It was only now that a cheap and efficient solution could be implemented. Now, we can siphon tons of it every second, and the stealth fleet we're talking about will become a real possibility."

"Damn," Anderson muttered, shaking his head with an incredulous smirk cresting the corner of his lips. "So, what ship numbers are we talking about here?"

"I hope for an entire stealth fleet," Hackett said.

His declaration was met with a moment of dead silence. He continued, dropping another bomb:

"And there'd be cruiser-sized stealth carriers in the mix, as well."

Everyone's eyebrows shot up.

"That's a lofty goal," Anderson said, tilting his head.

"Does humanity even have enough economic strength to actually achieve something like that?" Marcus asked in genuine wonder.

"That's an odd part," Hackett said, scratching his chin with a grimace. "Apparently, the colonization rush of the previous decades has caused a massive industrial boom to sate the needs of the burgeoning new systems. Now that no new planets are being settled in the recent years, all that huge industry is slowly grinding to a halt, and it's threatening to destabilize the economy. Hundreds of huge factories would be closed. Millions of people would become unemployed."

"Unless all that industry shifted into the production of something else," Jaina noticed with a discerning smile. "Something like military buildup."

Hackett nodded. "Until now, there was no justification to do that. But with Geth knocking at our doorstep, the public practically demands it, and nobody from the outside has any right to tell us that we cannot build up our military might in light of recent events. Not even the Council. It is playing into our current situation like a gift from god."

"Enabling us to build something as big as stealth carriers?" Jaina pointed out.

" _Small_ carriers," Hackett intoned. "They'd be labeled as "strategic cruisers" and their stealth capability would be more limited than the frigates', but that wouldn't be the problem; their job would be to stay far away from enemy's eyes anyway. It is the stealth strike craft they'd use for long-range assaults that would more than compensate for that.

"The idea is to have a single fleet operating a theater. The fleet would be separated into several independent frigate squadrons spread over a large territory and connected with QEC-s. They'd be the ones to prowl and actively seek out enemy elements _beyond our borders_ , and relay information to roving Carrier Strike Groups, which would then sneak up, join up with local frigates, and use the overwhelming strength all of their combined strike wings to inflict superior damage to targets of choice."

"Combining mobility, flexibility, and initiative, thus bringing the fight to the enemy," Jaina said as an evil grin spread across her lips. "I like it."

"Good; because your role in all of this is essential," Hackett stated. "You see, while we may produce the ships, but we need to know how good they can handle. We need the Normandy to find that out. We need you two to go out there and push the Normandy to the max in real combat scenarios. We need to know what is feasible and what isn't, what can be improved and what _needs_ to be improved."

"That particular part of the job will be done with pleasure," Marcus said. "Would anything else be needed from us?"

"We cannot order you to do anything anymore, but the Alliance would be very grateful if you were to provide assistance with any critical situation that would arise in the future."

"Admiral, do you even have to ask?" Marcus asked rhetorically.

"I appreciate it, Commander," Hackett nodded. "There is one more thing, though. It concerns the recording of your helm cam of your battle against the geth on Eden Prime. We're particularly interested in the part where you blaze down the hill toward the space port, wrecking the entire geth platoon to pieces."

"Marcus smirked. "You intend to broadcast this all over the airwaves, aren't you?"

"We have to," Anderson said somberly. "You heard what that smuggler, Powel, said down there at the spaceport: people are losing faith that we can protect them, and they're right. It's Wild-Wild West out there, for God's sake… batarian terrorists, slavers, pirates… and now Geth even?"

Hackett spoke up:

"That's why I'm going to authorize this video for our people to edit it and air it for the public. We need to show the people that there are capable soldiers defending them. We need them to look at what you did, and for them to want to _be_ like you, even if they are ordinary colonist militia. You'll be compensated properly, of course."

Jaina chuckled as she spoke:

"The way you make it sound, sir, I'll get to brag about being married to a celebrity."

"Don't smirk," Anderson said dryly, "you're on that video as well, and Alliance is always on a hunt for good-looking female soldiers to be their cover girls."

Jaina's eyes widened in horror. Before she could say anything, though, the office doors opened to welcome back Ambassador Udina.

"Don't tell me you settled our young quarian guest all the way through all by yourself, Ambassador?" Anderson asked. "You could have let someone else do the job."

"Oh, no, no, no!" Udina intoned merrily as he sat down at his desk and started typing things away. "You wouldn't believe the amount of information on the Quarian Flotilla that I've managed to obtain by just talking to our young guest. Ambassador needs to be on top of things!"

Marcus shared a smirk with Anderson, and then looked at the time.

"I'd need to get to that meeting with the Council," he said, then stood up.

"We will perform the official ship handover before you leave with the Normandy," Anderson said. "I won't take any more of your time."

Marcus nodded, then looked at his wife and XO.

"Jay, you come with me to the Council meeting," he said.

"What if this is supposed to be classified?"

Marcus activated his omni-tool and swiped it in front of her.

"I've just granted you Spectre Associate status," he replied. "I want you close by if the situation develops. It's much more expedient, and we may better coordinate."

"Alright, lead the way," she said, and the two bid their goodbyes with the rest.

..


	9. Chapter 9 - The Beacon

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

 _ **Thanks go to all helpful reviews!**_

 _ **I've had a few awesome conversations with a few of the review posters, and their input was very valuable.**_

 _ **Due to that, I've gone back and made a few edits and cleanups to the dialogue for the sake of making things clearer, but there were essentially no changes when it comes to the overall story and its direction.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 18.12.2016.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 9 – The Beacon**

.

The private Council conference chamber was silent but for the sound of Saren's voice that echoed from the recording. The three Councilors sat at a round table and listened to the extent of Saren's plan grimly.

"I recognize that other voice," Councilor Tevos said. "I think it's… Matriarch Benezia."

"You're not sure?" Valern asked.

Tevos shook her head. "It's her voice, but… she speaks strangely. Robotic."

"Like she's hypnotized," Sparatus added, frowning at the direction of the omni-tool that had been reproducing the recording. "Like an interrogation truth serum. I too, know Benezia, and it does sound like her voice, but it's just strange."

"True," Tevos agreed. "But it is her. Benezia T'Soni."

Marcus frowned. "T'Soni?" he repeated. "Wait a minute; isn't the chief scientist that is in charge of the Prothean beacon named Liara T'Soni?"

"Indeed she is," Tevos said. "Liara is Benezia's daughter. I know what you're thinking, Commander, but I don't think Liara is a security risk. I've known T'Sonis for a very long time, and I know about the… unpleasant occurrence that happened in their household. You see, there was a big fallout between Liara and her mother about ten years back when…" She paused as if she realized something, then continued, "when Benezia began associating with Saren. Liara and Benezia haven't spoken since."

"I'd feel better if this was verified," Marcus said. "As we humans say: 'better safe than sorry'. If she has no ties to Benezia, then she'd be a major boon. But if other is true…" he left it hanging.

"Done!" Councilor Valern raised his hand and the others realized that he had been typing away at his omni-tool. "The Commander is right. I've already tasked my STG agents to track down all correspondences. It'll be done by VI, so we'll have results in less than an hour."

The others nodded, filing that info away.

"I, however, am more concerned about these Reapers that Saren speaks about in this recording," Sparatus said. "Do we know who they are?"

"Only what geth memory core states," Marcus spoke. "The intel it holds states is that the Reapers are synthetic species that wiped out the Protheans."

"Synthetics that wiped out the Protheans?" Valern parroted, wanting to make sure.

"Impossible," Sparatus said. "If someone like this wiped out the Protheans, then where did they go after that? How come there's no trace of them anywhere?"

"If I do recall correctly," Marcus started," there are over four hundred known dormant relays, some of which are known to lead to entire sectors of our Galaxy which are unexplored – where it is estimated that another three-to-four hundred relays lie – and that's just based on statistics. The Reapers might have hidden somewhere in there."

"That's assuming they'd know how to shut down the relay," Sparatus pointed out challengingly.

"Councilor, if someone really has destroyed the Protheans – and you cannot deny that that scenario isn't very much plausible in the academic circles – then it's only logical that someone would be, at the very least, as advanced as Protheans. If so, then they would have known how to exert control of the Relays far beyond anything we have."

"Alright," Sparatus acquiesced, growing even more challenging. "But assuming that's the case, and a synthetic AI species really did destroy the Protheans and then hid behind one of the dormant relay sectors, then why didn't they come out to destroy us by now? That's what AI do."

"Why didn't the Geth?" Marcus pointed out, then pointed toward the galactic distance with his upturned palm. "They never left the Perseus Veil in three hundred years."

"One would think that if they'd nearly destroyed quarians in only a few months, then they'd be more than able to sufficiently expand their military might in these three hundred years to attack all of the species," Jaina spoke up. "It's not like they need to train soldiers and worry about public opinion. They can just build and upload copies into battle platforms."

"Exactly," Marcus continued, turning toward the Councilors. "And yet, the geth have been sitting still all this time. This sudden resurgence might be only a testing ground for an invasion – to see how well we fare so they can adapt."

"And if that's the case, then it only stands to reason that these Reapers could have done the same," Jaina picked up, drawing their attention in turn. "If it is the case, then they might be surging out from those dark sectors any moment, and we'd have no warning."

"The point is that we don't know why the Reapers have stayed hidden for fifty thousand years," Marcus finished, "but the scenario obviously bears a resemblance."

Sparatus frowned at that, turning his gaze to the side and working his mandibles in thought, while Tevos shared a significant and grave look with Valern.

"Makes sense when you say it like that, Commanders," the salarian said with importance. "But the fact is that we do not have proof of any of it. We cannot base our actions on this alone. If these Reapers are really out there and want to destroy organics, then we need to talk about facts rather than speculation."

Sparatus shook his head, chuckling ruefully. "I'll say! Just listen to us what we're saying! A race of sentient machines about to destroy all organics? I can't believe it."

"Can you honestly stake the lives of trillions merely on your own beliefs?" Jaina asked calmly.

Sparatus clenched his mandibles tightly against his cheeks; he knew the answer to that question was 'no'.

"All the more reason that we need to find more proof," Tevos said. "Maybe the Reapers are real, but maybe Saren just might have invented this as nothing more than an elaborate means to trick the Geth into believing him and serving him."

"That is actually more plausible – assuming he has somehow, beyond all possibility, found the means to convince them," Valern said. "But I won't put all my _runma_ in the same jar. The bottom line is that you must investigate these Reaper claims as well, Spectre, as it directly ties to Saren."

"That, I will do with pleasure," Marcus said.

"But what about the other things that were mentioned in the recording?" Tevos asked. "There's the mention of some kind of Cipher, the mention of another apparently functional Prothean beacon, and some kind of Conduit. How do they fit into the picture?"

"It seems very simple to me," Jaina shrugged and shared an understanding look with Marcus.

"What do you mean?" Sparatus asked as all three Councilors looked at the two.

"Well, it's pretty obvious that Saren thinks that the Conduit – whatever it is – can enable the Reapers to return," Jaina started. "The Protheans must have known about it since Saren is obviously using their beacons to extract the data by it being imprinted directly into his mind by the beacons themselves. However, it is also obvious that whatever the beacons have transferred is not meant for non-Prothean cerebral structure, which is why he claims in the recording that the images are garbled. And he obviously believes that this Cipher, which is located on Feros can solve his problem with that."

There was a pause as the Councilors contemplated all of this.

"You really think that the beacon could help with this?" Tevos asked.

"We must try, Councilors," Marcus said.

"Very well," Tevos nodded. "We will arrange for the… venture with the Prothean beacon."

"The results are here," Valern announced as he looked at his omni-tool, throwing everyone off track.

"What results?" Tevos asked in bewilderment.

"Of Dr. Liara T'Soni's correspondence," he clarified as he scanned the data with his eyes. "It would appear that none other than Saren had recently attempted to contact her, several times in fact, but he never succeeded. She always deleted his mail without reading it; our parsing VI would have detected if the mail content was extracted by some other means, but that's not the case either… Huh, now _this_ is interesting!"

"What is?" Marcus asked.

"Apparently, there was an abduction attempt of Liara T'Soni a month back when she was returning from the concert in Dilinaga Hall in Tayseri Ward. Look at this."

He transferred the view to the larger holo projector built into the table they sat at, and it showed a video from a security camera.

Several men could be seen waiting in shadows, until an asari figure – Liara T'Soni, apparently – passed with her back turned to the camera. The thugs surrounded her, all of them carrying weapons. They seemed exceptionally well armed and equipped, so a mere mugging was obviously not the reason for the attack. The lead thug seemed to speak something, obviously putting effort into looking all tough and demanding.

Suddenly, Liara was enveloped in a biotic glow and began tearing into the six men that were trying to capture her. After she absolutely thrashed them in an impressive display of biotic skill and synergy, she just turned and ran.

"Impressive!" Jaina noted as the video blinked out.

"Why is this recording so important?" Sparatus asked.

"Because these two turians on the video have raised red flags when the STG checked Dr. T'Soni," Valern said, then raised images of the two men in question. "Both of these men were captured earlier today by Commander Shepard when he procured the evidence of Saren's actions. They are confirmed to be Saren's men!"

"That irrefutably proves that Liara is not with Saren," Tevos said. "Why else would he try to kidnap her?"

"I'm glad to hear that," Marcus replied. "Now, when can I go to the beacon and see if I can get some data from it?"

"We will all go immediately," Tevos said. "This beacon is of utmost importance, and we are all very interested to see what we can find from it."

* * *

"Councilors," the asari receptionist greeted them as they entered the research department's reception. "This way, please. The beacon is undergoing the finishing stages of the preparation."

Marcus and Jaina followed along with the Councilors after the asari. Neither one of them had ever been here, but they had seen similar places during their N7 assignments. The few offices gave way to numerous lab chambers filled with various equipment, and the locked and secure doors behind which vaults filled with numerous Prothean artifacts were hidden. All around, many researchers and technicians could be seen going to and fro, seemingly busy in work or examining the datapads with barely taking notice on whether they were going to bump into something.

The asari led them into a large hall with a high ceiling, and Marcus finally saw the beacon dead at its center, surrounded by numerous equipment positioned at a safe distance away from it, and scientists dotting around.

It was active again. Not in the way he had seen it on Eden Prime, though; the beacon only had its lights lit, but the luminous waves that were radiating up and away from it on Eden Prime were not present.

He removed a slim visor frame from his pocket, flicked it to unfold like glasses, and placed it over his head, a holographic interface projecting in front of his eyes. He approached the beacon as the interface loaded up and began displaying energy, thermal and radiation readings in front of him. All the readings seemed normal, and there were no indications of a runaway energy buildup that he had to deal with at Eden Prime. As he walked toward it and raised his omni-tool to further check its internal scans, he heard a female voice next to him.

"If you would be so kind as to _not_ target the beacon with active scans," the woman said. Her voice was soft and youthful, but husky and stern at the same time.

He turned to look at the woman and was met with a pair of the most striking byzantine-blue eyes that he has ever seen. He removed his visor and replaced it back in his inner pocket, appraising the young asari that stood before him. She elaborated further:

"The beacon might still react to active scans in the way we don't know. I would appreciate it if you were to refrain?" she asked pointedly.

"I'm well aware; that's why I was using only passive scans," he said, turning his full attention to her, giving her a full once-over.

As she stood there in a form-fitting researcher's uniform with a datapad clutched to the side of her chest, he noticed she gave an air of cool professionalism in control of her surroundings, and those blue eyes of hers exuded discerning intelligence that did not come just from reading books.

And she was downright beautiful.

His husband sense began tingling, and he looked to his side to see Jaina smirking up at him knowingly. She glanced briefly toward the young asari, and then looked up at him with another one of their silent exchanges, this one laden with mischievousness, and winked at him in a way that nobody could see.

"Commander Marcus Shepard," Councilor Tevos spoke as she approached them, while Sparatus and Valern went to oversee some of the work being done. "May I present Doctor Liara T'Soni. She's in charge of this project. Doctor, these are Commanders Marcus Shepard, and Jaina Shepard, who have rescued the beacon from the Eden Prime attack."

"Ah, I see! So, you're the human Spectre everyone's been talking about?" Liara said with a smile on her face as she offered her hand for a handshake. "Thank you, Commanders, for retrieving this beacon. The functioning Prothean technology is so rare that this is like a gift from the Goddess."

"Any time," Marcus said, then pointed toward the beacon. "I see you have managed to turn it back on. Have you been able to isolate the problem concerning the regulator in the beacon's power transformer?"

"Yes," Liara said as she looked searchingly up at him. "I understand that you're the one who shut down the beacon?"

"I am," he said. "The thing wanted to overload because of a faulty regulator equivalent. I detected the readings being normal now; what have you done to solve it?"

"We replaced the part," she said with a small smile of victory.

"With what?" Jaina asked incredulously.

Liara smiled mysteriously as if she had some big secret, and then spread her arms pointing in general direction.

"This facility's is not a mere museum of mundane Prothean artifacts, Commander. Its specialty is researching salvaged Prothean technology. Huge amounts of their tech are guarded inside its vaults. Most of it is scrap metal, but fortunately for us, the Protheans tended to standardize their parts as well, and we have managed to find a functioning part that the beacon needed." She then nodded at the beacon. "As you can see, it works, and we have rigged the beacon to our power supply. It has been working stably – no oscillations or runaway energy buildup."

"What about the mass effect field the beacon projects?" Jaina asked. "It wanted to pull people toward the beacon."

"Yes, we're aware of it," Liara nodded. "We're keeping it offline; we have managed to establish a great level of control over beacon's systems, as you can imagine."

"That's good to know," Marcus said. "One of our people was caught in the field, but luckily, I'm a biotic and I've managed to pull her out; no telling what might have happened otherwise."

Liara nodded. "Based on what we were told, we are pretty sure that there would have been an explosive overload, and the beacon would have been irreparably damaged," she said, then turned to them with a smile. "Your quick and rational thinking may have helped us more than anyone might imagine, Commanders."

"That is our hope, as well," Jaina said somberly, joining gazes with her. "Saren betrayed the Citadel and killed a lot of people in order to get what's inside. Whatever it is, it must be worth the Galaxy."

"Here's hoping," Liara agreed. "So much knowledge was lost. Preserving and propagating it is my life's ambition. Even learning the bad news from this beacon would be better than no news at all."

"True, that," Marcus agreed as he looked down at her, and then looked around the vast chamber. "Do you think we will have success today?"

"I am _very_ optimistic," Liara said empathically. "We have known a lot about the beacons already – it's just that we hadn't had a functioning one. I'm certain that we will succeed."

"So, what procedures are you performing now?" he asked.

"We're preparing for the full beacon activation, actually. All of the simulations have been performed, and we have prepared for any possible contingency." She turned towards the beacon, and called out, "Redlan, how are we looking?"

A salarian turned away from the computer and called back:

"We need a few more minutes to work through some checkups of the beacon's systems. Won't be much longer, but you might as well just sit back and relax, Doctor."

Liara nodded, then turned back toward Marcus and Jaina, the three of them forming a small group.

"Sounds like you've managed to find out how the beacon works," Jaina commented as she glanced toward what the technicians were doing.

Liara looked sideways, tilting her head. "That depends on how you look at it," she said. "We still do not have the full picture behind beacon's technology, but we do know what it is supposed to do. We're like kids that were given an omni-tool; we know how to use it, but we have no idea how it works. In this particular case, we do know for sure that these beacons work by imprinting data directly into the user's mind."

"It correlates with the info we have," Jaina said as she shared a look with Marcus.

"But we got that info from data captured from Saren," Marcus said with a frown, and crossing his arms in front of him. "We know he has at least one more beacon, so he may have stumbled onto how to activate and use it, but that begs the question how did _you_ manage to find out what the beacons are supposed to do, Doctor? I mean – correct me if I'm wrong – but the majority of the Prothean technology that had been uncovered was little more than defunct scrap metal."

Liara's eyes flashed in great excitement.

"What you say is true, Commander," she said calmly and collectedly, even though a big smile was spreading across her lisp, "but that is the beauty of archaeology that had drawn me to it all those years ago. You see, most researchers make a mistake of focusing on Prothean engineering, but they forget the shear wealth of information that can be found in what were ordinary, everyday objects, places, and structures that can be found in numerous Prothean dig sites. I know it might seem mundane and pointless to dig up and study the remnant pieces of clothing, furniture or building layout, but it is these objects that provide the insight into the Protheans' thought processes. If one digs deep enough and correlates the numerous fragments of data with one another, a bigger picture is bound to emerge, and from that big picture, a wealth of new information will suddenly be revealed. It is this new information that will point you to those places that you never considered examining, and you'd suddenly start to reveal all sorts of things at an unprecedented rate."

Jaina smiled discerningly. "Sounds like it's more than interest in just Protheans that drives you," she noticed.

Liara smiled, trailing her eyes to the ground for a brief moment. "Mysteries and getting to the bottom of them is a… passion of mine," she said. "And Protheans are the greatest mystery of our time. An entire species – just gone. People tend to disregard the scope of it. When dealing with a mystery of that magnitude, you must take a step back and look beyond the established notions and theories. Sometimes you need to look at things outside the box, as I believe you humans like to put it."

"Yes," Marcus agreed with a nod as he cast a sweeping gaze across the huge chamber. "Thinking outside the box is the only thing that can lead to success. Nobody ever became great or achieved a groundbreaking discovery if all they ever did was to follow everyone else." He turned his gaze back at Liara, scrutinizing her for a moment. "Something tells me you know exactly what I'm talking about; you wouldn't be here otherwise, Doctor, isn't it?"

"That is true," Liara said somberly. "Majority of the most prominent Prothean researchers in the Galaxy are asari matriarchs and the reason they are considered the best is because of the centuries of experience they have in the field. But I believe that looking at it that way is wrong. Centuries of experience mean nothing if the method by which the experience was gained never managed to account for _everything_."

"You say that everyone else's methods are wrong?" Jaina asked.

"Everyone else's methods of uncovering what happened to the Protheans are like using a ruler placed against the ground to prove that the planet is flat," Liara said dryly. "The methods they had used were insufficiently profound. Things change. Technology advances and new things are being discovered every day, yet they refuse to open their eyes to new things. It is almost as if they are… afraid to uncover the truth. This is why I had managed to achieve in fifty years more than what they had in five centuries."

"That's still a lifetime!" Jaina noted with a chuckle. "I wish I could pursue a career for so long and still look as good as you do."

Liara laughed at the compliment, trailing her eyes down bashfully for a brief moment.

"Well, it might seem that way to you, but I am only a hundred and six," she said lightheartedly. "To a lot of people, I am barely more than a child."

"A child that has obviously been causing serious ripples in the Prothean researching community," Jaina pointed out, crossing her arms across her chest. "From where I'm standing, you must be doing something right."

"Try pointing that out to scientists that are five times your age," she said dryly.

"So, how did you fight someone like that?" Jaina asked, narrowing her eyes with a smile. "It must not have been easy to avoid being buried, figuratively speaking."

Liara harrumphed. "No, it most certainly was not," she said. "Obviously, you can't bludgeon your way through millennia-old and firmly rooted beliefs of others; they _would_ , as you so put it, bury your reputation and career just out of spite. No; you need to be careful, to be highly tactical in your approach. You need to plan your strategy around your goals, observe and gather information, and then to subtly give that information out so that it seems things would go their way when they, in fact, go to yours. You need to subtly cajole and threaten without them realizing they are the recipient, so that when they do things, they will avoid doing them to your detriment."

"Wow," Jaina muttered in amazement.

"I'll say," Marcus agreed with a chuckle. "That's how the best military leaders approach victory: through subtlety."

Liara shrugged, a small smile tugging the corners of her lips.

"I had to adapt," she said. "I've learned early on that child-like enthusiasm can cost you a lot when it comes to working with the big sharks in archaeology. I nearly lost everything when I pushed for too much too bluntly after I graduated from university because of it. But, I had learned how to defend my cause. The other eminent experts have done their best to dismiss my theories to the cause of Prothean extinction just because they don't like being wrong, but I will not let them win."

What she said last drew an immediate attention from Marcus and Jaina.

"So, you're telling us you have theories that differ from general opinion?" he asked, not hiding his interest. "How so?"

"Suffice it to say they are radical," Liara replied apologetically. "It might be a bit tedious to listen to the explanation if one's not an enthusiast, and I wouldn't want to bore you."

"No, please, go ahead," Jaina said empathically, reaching out to touch Liara's bicep. "Both Marcus and I would really be interested to hear what you have to say."

"It is true," he confirmed.

"Besides, the technicians are yet to calibrate that thing," Jaina said amusedly as she nodded toward the beacon.

Marcus smirked. "You're really outvoted here, Doctor," he pointed out.

Liara laughed out loud.

"Oh, fine!" she declared in amused exasperation. "Well, since you asked for it…" she took a deep breath and began speaking: "The ruling theory today is that the Protheans suffered a degradation of their civilization, including civil wars, genetic disease, and technology degradation. " She turned serious then. "But my theory postulates something radically different. I believe that someone, or something, had deliberately and quite violently removed Protheans from the face of the Galaxy, and then purposefully removed as many traces of them that they could."

Marcus and Jaina's faces suddenly turned serious, and the two humans shared a grave look. Liara didn't fail to notice this. Marcus turned to her then.

"Why do you think that someone has _erased_ the traces?" Marcus asked, narrowing his eyes contemplatively.

"Because, if you are an empire that spanned an entire galaxy for the duration of several thousand years, you are going to build things to withstand the rigors of time to a great extent," Liara said. "Yet, wherever we find Prothean ruins, it's only bits and pieces, with everything of any relevance gone. Feros, with its cities, is the only anomaly, but even those huge cities hold no clues or data what happened. The cities might stand, but it's still as if someone erased all the clues as to what happened." She paused for a moment, giving emphasis to her following words: "And, there is one other thing in the whole matter… you see, the Protheans were not the first galactic species to mysteriously vanish in an all-too-similar manner."

"I wasn't aware that there were any others before Protheans," Jaina said.

"Oh, but there were," Liara said. "In my searches, I have found and documented numerous other cases that match the Prothean disappearance in their form: The Zeioph on the planet Armeni, the ruins of an unknown civilization on Junthor, the battle debris on Eingana, the remains on planet Etamis, and many more – all of which hold traces of different civilizations separated by hundreds of thousands of years from each other, all of which had risen to dominate the Galaxy at one point in time, and were suddenly and violently cast down. Many of the worlds these relics are found on show signs of extensive bombardment by dreadnought-grade kinetic weaponry."

"Are you saying that this has happened over and over again?" Marcus asked in wonder.

"Indeed," Liara nodded. "The Cycle – as I call it – keeps repeating itself at seemingly regular intervals about every fifty thousand years. And the fact that our civilization is so close to that deadline is all the more concerning."

"That is a very frightening idea," Jaina said, and Marcus and Liara looked at her questioningly. "Imagine if there was someone who comes around every fifty thousand years and wipes out everyone who happens to be around… almost as if they are being… _reaped_."

Marcus couldn't miss the connotation, and neither could the Councilor Tevos who had approached them, and had overheard a part of their conversation.

"Commander," the Councilor spoke up, "I can understand this may be the clue you were looking for in your efforts to stop Saren, and though Doctor T'Soni's theory does seem plausible, there is not enough hard data to confirm it."

"Oh? So you've known of Liara's theory already?" Marcus asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Yes," Tevos stated simply. "Though it is true that many other ancient species have existed, there is nothing to indicate that they have been destroyed by the same agent, Commander. The theory was not relevant to Saren and the geth at the time."

"That's why we're here, Councilor," Marcus said pointedly. "To see if there _is_ a connection. Are we going to allow the threat of Saren to continue because we haven't tried every venue of approach? It's not magic and fairy tales we're basing our search into Saren's intentions, but in hard, cold, scientific facts; and this beacon holds them."

There was a pregnant moment of silence before Tevos spoke once again:

"Very well, Commander," she said, inclining her head. "We can spare a little bit of effort into examining this much. If you'll excuse me."

She then glided away to join her fellow Councilors. Liara waited until the Councilor was out of earshot before she made her query:

"Commander, is there something going on?"

Marcus and Jaina shared a look, then he spoke up:

"There might be indications that the Protheans were wiped out by a race of sentient machines, called the Reapers."

"The… the Reapers?" she repeated in bewilderment. "I've never heard of that term. Where did you get it from?"

"It comes from a conversation recording we have obtained," Marcus said. "One in which Saren discusses his plans with… one of his associates, during which they mention that they want to ensure the return of the Reapers."

There was a silence as Liara's face gained an artificial neutral expression.

"That associate of his… it was my mother, wasn't it?" she stated more than asked in a voice that quivered just under the surface. "Commander, I assure you, I had nothing to do with this. I…"

She was suddenly interrupted by Jaina stepping out and placing her hands on Liara's biceps.

"Liara, it's alright," she said soothingly. "We know. We have already confirmed that you had nothing to do with Saren or Benezia."

Liara dipped her head and closed her eyes as she composed herself.

"Thank you, Commanders," she said gratefully. "You have no idea how painful it is knowing my mother is working with him. That man wants to pervert all that is Prothean in his quest for power. I am glad he was finally shown for what he is."

"That's what we're here for, Miss T'Soni," Marcus said compassionately. "And we're sorry to have worried you like this. Do you think you'll be alright to continue with the beacon's activation?"

Liara smirked good-naturedly as she looked up at him.

"Please, Commander, I've been doing this before you even left your cradle."

"Good," he smiled back. "Because I'll be putting my life in your hands with all of this."

Liara was about to reply when one of the technicians then called out to her:

"Doctor T'Soni, we're ready to activate the beacon at any moment you're ready!"

Liara nodded, then motioned for Marcus and Jaina to follow her. They joined the Councilors who stood near the main console.

"How do you want to do this, Commander?" Councilor Tevos asked when they joined them.

"We know Saren used it himself," Marcus said. "If I am to conduct my search for him, then I must be the one to see what this beacon will give me for myself."

"I must warn you, Commander," Liara spoke up. "We have no way of knowing whether the interaction with the beacon will have any long-term ill effects."

"I know," he said easily. "But this is how it needs to be done – by braving the rapids. Tiptoeing around it will only make us lose precious time while Saren does god-knows-what!"

"Very well, Commander," Tevos acquiesced, then walked with the rest of the Councilors into a nearby observation room that had a bullet-proof glass and kinetic barrier protection.

"So, what do you think," Jaina prompted, looking at both Liara and Marcus with a smile. "You think this beacon might have answers that might prove any of our theories?"

Liara smirked, then looked at Jaina pointedly as she spoke:

"If it did, I'd. Be. Overjoyed. In fact, I'd be overjoyed with _anything_ it gave us," she turned and nodded at the beacon as she kept speaking. "Electronics are the most sensitive things to the passage of time. The data is nothing but small electro-magnetic charge; it would simply evaporate after years of sitting. This is the first complete functioning piece of Prothean computer hardware we had ever found. I'd be grateful for even a glimpse of its data." She then became somber, and looked up at Marcus, a look of profound gratefulness and respect etched on her face and in her blue eyes. "Thank you, Commander, for doing this. I know you're risking your life for a much greater cause, but… this means a world to me, as a scientist, as well."

Marcus smiled. "Think nothing of it, Doctor," he said and nodded that he was ready.

Liara gave the mark, and the announcement was made for the beginning of the beacon activation. Everybody cleared the area around the beacon, and the technician broadcasted the countdown over the intercom.

When he reached zero, a light hum could be heard from the beacon as it began radiating wispy light that seemed to slowly emanate up and away from it.

" _All readings stable,_ " came the announcement on the speakers. " _No fluctuations in the beacon's power grid. Mass effect field holding at minus three percent._ "

Liara looked to Marcus and spoke:

"We will be monitoring your neural and physical activity with numerous devices, and we have a doctor onboard. If something goes wrong, we'll have the best chance of helping you."

He nodded, and then removed his leather jacket and shut down his omni-tool.

He stepped out into the area and started walking toward the beacon with a sure step. He stopped about two paces away, and looked up at the humming, reverberating obelisk, fully expecting a stampede of rampaging klinx to charge out.

The beacon's mass effect field pulsed with a dull, reverberating thud, and Marcus felt the pull. He didn't fight it. He didn't fight the tingling sensation that suddenly sprawled through the inside of his head either, nor the induced pulsating that followed it. The beacon's field raised and suspended him in the air in front of it.

And then the dams burst.

He was flooded with thousands upon thousands of images, moving images, shifting images, images that flashed like a collage, an utter chaos of speed and slowness, and shattering pain in his skull.

" _By the Goddess, it's sending micro-phasic currents into his brain!"_ he heard someone shouting.

But it was a distant shout. All he could see and hear were the images and the sounds that accompanied them. Language. Alien language. Voices panicked, repeating phrases, just like a distress call. " _Cannot" –_ the word hung in the air, the only one he could understand in the sentence. " _The Counduit"_ – the term came like an impression. Images of explosions, impressions of giant red beams that destroyed structures, alien figures caught in the explosions it caused. Static interspersed the images.

" _I can pull him out with biotics –"_

He felt as if the images were trying to overwhelm him, drown him, and he knew that if he allowed it to happen it would be the end of him. So he focused all of his willpower, forced his eyes to remain open, and braced; filed and sorted every image that came to him, adjusting, adapting the utter chaos of incoherence he was receiving.

Alien figures were fighting something, shooting at something – something he couldn't see; something above them. " _Through the Conduit"_ – came the alien words again _._ Sounds of unnatural screams as images of cybernetic enhancements invaded somebody's body forcefully. Many such bodies. Many such people, their eyes glowing unnaturally blue. Four eyes on a single head. More static.

" _No, the field interlaced with his brain, it will kill him for sure! Cut the power!"_

The battle in space. Green beams against red beams. White cylindrical structure with spikes protruding on the sides being destroyed. The image of the Galaxy being consumed by the increasingly expanding red zones. _"Cannot stop"_ – echoed through the screams and noise. Fewer green beams against red beams. Again – static.

" _We can't! The beacon is using its own power supply!"_

A mass effect relay, but this one was not in space but protruding from the ground and pointing up. Cybernetic implants being violently implanted into bodies; digging in violently, spreading through the bloodstream. _The Conduit._ Explosions and the people caught in them. Three-fingered people. Four eyes. Faces in agony. A feeling of desperation. Static.

A tomb. Hundreds of thousands of bodies in metal cylindrical caskets, like a mausoleum, but with different feel… on a planet. Dark planet in front of an orange backdrop.

The last image lingered in his eyes as he felt himself descending back down. He stumbled when his feet touched the floor, but managed to stay on his feet.

"Quickly, help him!" he heard someone shout, and a padding of running feet that approached him.

"Ugh, I'm alright," he growled as he squeezed his eyes shut from the pain that laced through his head. "I've just got a headache."

He opened his eyes just as he felt someone's hands on both of his biceps, prepared to hold him in a supportive manner unnecessarily. He saw Jaina at his left, Liara on his right, and the salarian physician was running scans on him with his omni-tool.

"I'm alright, people, really," he said as he straightened out.

"You've got a nosebleed, Commander," Liara said with concern marring both her face and voice.

Marcus swiped his thumb under his nose and saw crimson fluid on it.

"Well, I'm not a hemophiliac, I won't die from a nosebleed," he said, then nodded at the doctor with his chin. "What's the verdict, doctor?"

The Salarian viewed the scan results on his omni-tool, then spoke:

"Physically, you're fine," he said. "Your heart rate and blood pressure had spiked greatly while you were at the beacon, but they're returning to normal. The nasal capillary rupture has already sealed itself. However, I'm detecting an increased activity in your brain."

Marcus thought about it for a moment.

"I feel like I've been crunching numbers for hours," he commented. "It's like my brain is itching."

"Must be placebo," the Salarian commented. "The brain has no physical sensory nerves. Though, I wouldn't be surprised at anything, considering the amount of micro-phasic current that passed through your head. You have no idea how lucky you are to be alive; what happened to you could have killed a krogan!"

"Thanks for the compliment," he replied evenly, then glanced down at a pair of small blue hands still clutching firmly onto his right forearm, as if afraid that he was going to break apart.

"It's alright, you don't have to hold me, Liara – I assure you I won't fall," he said with a chuckle.

Liara glanced down, and realizing she was still holding him, she removed her hands as quickly as if she was burnt.

"I'm sorry, Commander," she exclaimed abashedly. "I – I didn't realize…"

"It's alright," he assured her calmly. "I appreciate your concern."

He turned and walked back toward the edge of the chamber, where the Councilors were now waiting, the excitement obvious in their body language, even though they were keeping a lid on it.

"Commander," Councilor Tevos spoke up. "That was a unique sight to behold. Are you feeling alright?"

"For all intents and purposes," he replied.

"And now to the important question," Sparatus spoke up. "Did the beacon actually imprint any information into your mind as the recording of Saren has led to believe, or was it just a fluke?"

"It did; and a lot of it," Marcus said gravely, then turned to look at the beacon sideways. He then posed a question as he looked down at Liara: "I trust that the beacon is still functional?"

"It is," she replied with a smile of victory. "I am confident that we would be able to repeat the process." Her expression turned somber then before she continued. "I'm, however, not sure that repeating the process would be wise. Not a lot of people would have been able to endure what you've gone through, Commander," she said, looking up at him with something that bordered on reverence, then added, "You must be a person of exceptional mental fortitude."

"That's why we have chosen him to become a Spectre, Doctor," Sparatus replied dismissively.

"No, you don't understand," she said gravely, turning her head to the Councilor. "We have detected a huge amount of data being streamed into his brain in the form of microphasic currents. That is how the beacon transfers data. That, also, happens to be the quickest method to completely unravel your very nervous structure and leave you in a vegetative state. Not even an experienced asari matriarch would be safe from it. We mustn't play games with this beacon."

"She is right," Councilor Tevos spoke up. "I too feel that we should not approach lightly to interacting with the beacon again. Measures must be taken for us to find a way to interact with it safely first."

"Agreed," Valern spoke. "It will mean nothing if people die trying to access the beacon's information. Now, I suggest we continue the further conversation in the observation chamber, to keep a more 'need-to-know' status. You are invited as well, Doctor T'Soni; your input on the matter is important."

"Of course, Councilor," Liara said gratefully.

Marcus turned and glanced at the beacon once more, seeing the scientists dotting at it with scanners and other equipment, then turned and walked into the room with the Councilors.

They all sat at chairs that were present there, and then Tevos spoke:

"Now, Commander, do you feel able to tell us what you've seen through the beacon?"

"Hard to say," he responded. "Frankly, I'm not sure what I saw. I was assaulted with a jumble of images and sounds, like a corrupted video recording that kept jumping incoherently from one segment of the recording to the other, and numerous other recordings were there as well. There are also holes in the recordings, like holes in the memory one gets if he drinks too much alcohol – you know something did happen there, but it's just gone."

"I'm not surprised you describe it like that, Commander," Liara spoke up. "The beacons were made by the Protheans, and were thus designed to interact with a Prothean mind, not any of ours. They may have had a much more resilient neurological structure to even think of using such method of information transfer, not to mention that their cerebral structure was different. To a non-Prothean, these images would be jumbled at best! At worst, you might not have even been able to see anything, since your mind would not know how to process it."

"Well, is there anything that you did manage to see, Commander?" Sparatus asked.

Marcus tried sorting out the images and sounds that were floating in his head.

"I caught glimpses of how the Protheans looked," he said.

All of the people in the room leaned forward expectantly, in full attention.

"They had four eyes, like this," he showed the supposed position on his face. "And elongated skulls with broad fringes. They were being slaughtered in the images I've seen."

"Slaughtered?!" Tevos exclaimed.

"I saw images of war, Councilor," he said. "There were clear impressions of space battles, ground warfare, explosions, of people fighting and dying…"

"War?" Sparatus asked intently as he leaned forward. "Against whom?"

"Nothing specific in that regard," he replied. "All I saw of the enemy were red beams of destruction, like energy weapons. But it sure as hell was a war, and one thing is unmistakable: the Protheans were losing."

There was a short pause as everyone was silently processing this. Marcus used this to continue.

"I saw Protheans being killed and converted into synthetic husks, like the human ones we fought against on Eden Prime that were made by the geth. I don't know about you, but to me, that sounds like they were waging war against synthetics. What I saw makes me believe that they indeed were destroyed by the ones they called Reapers."

"Doctor T'Soni," Valern ventured. "Have you ever heard any theories or found any evidence that the Protheans were destroyed by a race of sentient synthetics?"

"Well, it is true that there are a lot of theories throughout the recognized scientific community that the Protheans could have been wiped out in the war," Liara provided. "But I have never heard anything about the Reapers."

"And I'd tend to agree with you," Sparatus said. "What happened to these invaders? Why are they gone while we are here, finding only Prothean artifacts instead of the invaders' ones?"

"Because once you defeat your enemy, you will salvage anything you can, Councilor," Marcus countered. "You know that as well as I. If it was synthetics that destroyed the Protheans, they would have had no need to stay on Prothean planets. Why would they? They don't need air, water or soil to harvest crops – they're machines!"

"That may sound very logical, but that's all hypothetical thinking, Commander," Sparatus replied. "We need facts."

"He is right," Valern nodded. "Please, Commander, tell us anything else you might have seen."

Marcus clenched his teeth in irritation but kept it to himself. He exhaled slowly through his nostrils and spoke up:

"There were alien-sounding words, as well," he said. "I couldn't understand it, but it was panicked – that kind of thing crosses the species barrier – and it held all the trademarks of a distress call. Some words I could understand, though; it came down to: ' _Cannot stop'_."

Liara spoke up then:

"Your mind must have been able to adapt the word you've been transferred. It would be consistent with how this method of communication would work: the meaning of the word would be transferred directly, thus crossing the language barrier."

"And what about the Conduit?" Sparatus asked.

"It was repeated several times," Marcus said. "Words like: _'Through the Conduit_ ' were there, but not much more. There was, however, an imprint of a planet – the second one from an orange star. A dead world. There was something like a great tomb there, with hundreds of thousands of people buried in some kind of crypts. It was a disconcerting image, but all pointed out that the Conduit was there."

"It will be next to impossible to find it based on just that," Valern said.

"True, and this matter of the supposed sentient machines that destroyed the Protheans doesn't really help at all," Sparatus said. "I am extremely skeptical about it. We need to focus on what's real, here, and not some hypothetical fairy tales. We have nothing to corroborate the existence of these so-called Reapers. What's more, we cannot even be sure that this Conduit is real.

"Doesn't matter," Marcus stated with surprising firmness that brooked no argument, making others turn their heads to look at him questioningly. "You don't want to believe the Reapers are real – fine. They did not believe Columbus that the world was round, either. But Saren is looking for the Conduit, and he's seen the images of this beacon as well. It means he'll try to find this planet. Therefore, my job is to find it before him, and ambush him there. It's as simple as that. Anyone having a problem with _that_?"

There was silence as the Councilors looked at each other before Sparatus spoke:

"Makes sense, when you put it that way," he said with a nod. "What will your actions be?"

Marcus stood up abruptly and turned to look at the Prothean beacon. He spoke in a no-nonsense manner:

"Saren's next target is Feros – we all know that. If I'm not mistaken, it's an old Prothean world, and there is every indication that he's searching for something Prothean. He has Geth on his side, mercenaries, and judging by the fact that Benezia is with him, I wouldn't put it past it that she might have provided asari commandos as well."

He turned back toward them and leveled his penetrating blue gaze at them.

"If I am to take him on, I will need a team – a small group of strong and capable men and women of various expertise that would be needed for this mission."

He then turned to Liara, and spoke with a calming voice:

"Doctor, your help would be of utmost value on this mission," he said to the wide-eyed asari. "Where we are going, we will be dealing with unknown Prothean technology, and I need the best. However, if you feel that you would be unable to do this because we might face your mother, or that you simply feel it's too dangerous for you – I'd understand."

"No, I will go," she said somberly and without any doubt in her voice. "I do not know why my mother chose to go with Saren, but I feel that a confrontation between us was long in the making. It makes me overjoyed at the prospect of working on this Prothean mystery with you, Commander, and do not worry about me; I can handle myself in a dangerous situation. During my expeditions, I have often been beset by various hostile gangs that I had to fight off. As a result, my biotics and light weapons training do not fall short, I assure you."

Councilor Tevos stepped forward.

"Having a Prothean expert on sight is actually a very wise idea," she said as she looked in turn to both Sparatus and Valern. "You have obviously had some thoughts on this. Did you have anyone else specific in mind?"

"I need a person who knows all that can be known about the Geth we will be fighting," he said without ado. "Their weaknesses, their coding, technology – someone that has the expertise to conduct EWAR attacks against them… Only a quarian fits that description, and I know just where to find one. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya has already brought us evidence against Saren; I think little convincing will be needed.

"I'll also need someone who is skilled in tracking and finding clues if I am to venture into this mystery of Saren's actions – someone who can help me sniff out a trail, put the pieces of the puzzle together, and can also pull his weight, and more, in combat scenarios. I need Garrus Vakarian of the C-Sec. He is former turian Special Forces, is vested in bringing Saren to justice, and he would know how a turian thinks, which is more than I can say for myself.

"And finally, taking into consideration that Saren operates from the Attican Traverse, I need someone who knows the layout and players who operate on the unlawful frontier better than I do. I need someone like Urdnot Wrex. He's a krogan battlemaster, a biotic, and seems to have had centuries of experience. I've worked with him already, and he has already shown great tactical thinking and has expressed interest in continued ventures."

He turned back toward the Councilors as he finished:

"I have the ship, and I have the crew. I have already been named commanding officer of the SSV Normandy, and I will be assuming that position in full capacity as of tomorrow morning. The thing I do not have, however, is funding. We need these experts, and they deserve to be properly equipped and compensated for their services on this very hazardous and life-threatening endeavor. I need you to provide it."

The Councilors looked at each other in silent understanding, and then Tevos spoke:

"Your reasoning is undisputed, Commander. We understand and support your decision to hire these individuals – if they would be so inclined, of course – and we will provide funding accordingly. We do, however, trust that you will be fully accountable for their actions in their service as Spectre Associates."

"Thank you, Councilors," he replied. "That is most appreciated."

"Is there anything else that you need to do? Something to add?" Valern asked.

"Nothing."

"Then we will return to the Citadel Tower to make the necessary arrangements. Have a good evening, Commander."

The Councilors then walked out of the chamber, leaving Marcus, Jaina, and Liara in it. Liara spoke up:

"Commander, if I may ask – what am I allowed to bring on your ship with me?"

Marcus shared a glance with Jaina, and then she spoke up:

"If you're asking about clothing, then it's usually one locker – if you're familiar with one."

"Indeed, I am, and don't worry – I am very compact when it comes to clothing. But what I was actually referring to was archaeological equipment. I'd need several field scanners and some other devices. Nothing cumbersome, but it'd need to be placed somewhere where it can be actively used."

"Well, we have a lab right in the extention of our medical bay," Jaina offered, sharing a look with Marcus. "Doctor Chakwas is not using it for anything, but we can settle you there, Doctor. We'd have to provide you a cot, though; I'm afraid that this won't be so luxurious."

"I have spent years on field expeditions, Commander," Liara said with that wispy smile of hers and a glint in her eye. "A cot is the only thing available to sleep on when on such journeys. I assure you, I am more rugged than I look."

"Well then, report to the Normandy at 0700 hours, tomorrow, Doctor," Jaina said with a smile.

"Of course, Commander," she replied and shook hands with the two of them for goodbye.

Marcus and Jaina left the research center and realized that it was well into the evening time.

"Want to take a stroll for a bit?" Marcus offered.

"Sure," she said and slithered her hand through the crook of his arm.

"We've made a lot of progress, today," Marcus said as he placed his hands into his pant pockets and started walking.

"Are you sure you are alright?" Jaina asked worriedly as she looked up at him. "That beacon experience seemed to be really intense."

"I feel fine," he shrugged. "I can have Doctor Chakwas do a follow-up once we get to the Normandy; maybe one in the morning, too. But I have to say, it was worth it."

"Well, I can't argue that we've built the great foundation for our future efforts against Saren," Jaina admitted. "Imagine what it might have been like if we never recovered the beacon, if it has exploded as it almost did happen. Or if we haven't had all those recordings from Eden Prime."

"We would have had a lot more trouble with all of this, that's for sure, but still, we know so little," he said grimly, then shook his head as his voice dropped. "What the hell is he after? I can't see why anyone would want to bring back a race of sentient killing machines. Saren did not strike me as that crazy during the hearing."

"Marcus… do you really believe these Reapers are real?" she asked him softly.

He looked down at her with honesty, and spoke:

"I do. If you've seen what I've seen, then as a soldier, you would have had no doubt about it. I've seen the destruction that was being wrought upon the Protheans. I mean, it doesn't even have to be sentient machines! The Protheans are gone, and look at all these people around us: they're strolling around idly as if the Protheans have just decided to disappear and leave nothing but mass relays just for the sake of us poking around them like ignorant children. It just doesn't work that way! And it's pissing me off. They don't want to believe that anything bad is over the horizon; they want to live in blissful ignorance. Yet the Protheans were far more advanced than any of us, and somebody wiped them all out so thoroughly, that we don't even have skeletons. It just. Doesn't. Happen. That. Way."

Marcus suddenly saw her hand reach out and cup his cheek and turn his face toward her. He looked at her serious eyes, and then she spoke:

"I already believe you, Marc," she said. "I believe everything you said."

He turned fully toward her and hugged her tightly, with her responding by hugging him back and molding against him.

"I never asked you to believe me," he whispered softly.

"Yeah, well, I didn't marry an idiot," she declared, smirking as she looked up at him.

He chuckled as they separated, hugging her around her shoulders as they continued their stroll, and pulled her in, planting a kiss on her temple.

"By the way," Jaina spoke up, a coy smile on her lips. "What do you think of our young Dr. T'Soni?"

That brought a smile to his lips.

"Are you going somewhere with this, wife?" he asked, smirking. "What are you tryin' to get to?"

"Nuthin'," she evaded, coyly smirking back, then leaned in and spoke like a little devil on his shoulder. "My, but she is a sweet girl, don't you think? Both pretty and smart like a little bee. And did you see those big beautiful blue eyes of hers? They practically radiate intelligence!"

He laughed. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to set me up with a date," he said.

"Well, I do have to tease you every now and again," she said coyly. "It works to my benefit."

He laughed out loud. "You're incorrigible," he said.

"Yes, but you love me like that," she declared victoriously, before nudging him with her shoulder encouragingly. "But really, let me hear your thoughts about Liara. I really liked her! I feel like I could hit it off with her real nicely as a friend at the very least. Don't tell me you feel otherwise!"

"No, I agree with you," he admitted, then stayed silent for a couple moments. "If you want to look at it like that, she really is both smart and capable if she has managed to find the evidence of the Reapers' existence on her own, as well as to fend her theories off from the naysayers at such a young age for an asari. It was… easy for me to talk to her."

"Well, there you go," Jaina said, looking smug. "I think it says quite a bit about her character."

Marcus laughed. "Yeah, well according to the security recording, she absolutely thrashed those mercs Saren sent, and she was in a dress! So, yeah, I'm sure she sports some character, alright." He paused for a moment. "There's a lot one could appreciate there, I think."

"And that's why I think getting to know her better wouldn't be a waste of time," Jaina pointed out patiently. "Who knows – maybe the three of us will become really close friends."

"Close, or _close_?" Marcus pointed out with a smirk.

"Well, I wouldn't want to rush that," Jaina said somberly. "But, if we really hit it off as true friends, then… maybe on the long run – yeah! She's already amazed by you, you know."

"Oh?"

"Marcus, she looks at you like a god," she said in a knowing tone.

He chuckled. "Professional curiosity, no doubt. I was touched by something Prothean, remember?"

"Hmm… maybe a little bit, true, but trust me when I say there was more to it than that," she spoke sagely. "A woman just knows. It's like you always say – we'll see," she chirped.

Marcus shook his head with a smile, then spoke:

"Well, if you're analyzing people, then tell me what do you think of the quarian girl, Tali, and Garrus Vakarian."

"Oh, Tali's adorable," she spoke with the ' _awww_ ' tone. "That accent of hers is just so exotic. And she's brave as hell, you can tell that from a mile away, even though she's nervous and frightened around us. She's all cutely fidgety, and then despite that she projects a brave stance. Oh, I just want to… " she trailed off, scrunching up her face and squeezing her fists in front of her chest as if she wanted to grab and cuddle something.

He chuckled loudly. "You actually sound protective of her," he noticed.

"I can't help it," Jaina whined. "She reminds me of what I've always wanted in a baby sister."

Marcus chuckled once more, shaking his head. "So, what about Garrus Vakarian then?"

"I can't really say, Marc; he didn't speak so much at the Embassy. I'm gonna have to ask _you_ that question right back."

"Fair enough," he said easily, then repeated what he'd heard from Executor Palin himself. "Garrus is former turian Special Forces, a sniper, weapons and ordnance expert, and technician. He was considered for a Spectre Candidacy. He's also pegged as rash and headstrong. We might want to spend a bit of time getting to know him, see if he has any potential weaknesses that might be a liability that we must find a way to neutralize."

"Every soldier has such liabilities in one way or the other," Jaina agreed. "Knowing our people is an important thing, and Garrus is not the only one who we'd need to spend some time with."

"Ashley and Kaidan?" Marcus asked rhetorically.

Jaina smirked as she spoke:

"You've seen it yourself. Both of them need some… "corrective" actions applied by us. Ashley may be a capable soldier, but she's too emotional in an impulsive sort of way. She has a cheerful demeanor about her, but she has a lot of impatience about her as well. She's quick to judge and quicker to anger. Battle situations are not the problem here – she'll obey orders like any good soldier – but working with people might be another thing entirely. We'll need a lot of work with her."

"I've noticed," Marcus said. "Kaidan, on the other hand, is a total opposite of her, at least from what I got so far."

"Yeah," Jaina agreed. "Whereas Ash is impulsive and loud, Kaidan is reserved and quiet; more down to earth. While she will argue with people, he, in turn, will not communicate enough. And I think he's too afraid of hurting people with his biotics. He is much more powerful than he lets on; I believe he actually held himself back at Eden Prime."

"Yeah, I think I've noticed that, too," Marcus said. "While Ash is too sure of herself and her ways, and will lose her life by rushing heedlessly into combat, Kaidan will do it by being too careful and waiting to examine the situation. He, in turn, is not sure of himself, and I feel he has low initiative. So, how do you suggest we proceed with them?"

Jaina took a deep contemplating breath as she considered it.

"I think we should just lead by example," she replied at last. "Other than that, we need to divert those hindering thoughts and emotions of theirs away. They need to spend it somehow. All that should be left is the other side, more positive side."

She took a deep breath before continuing.

"But, let's put Ashley and Kaidan aside for a moment. Tell me about that krogan mercenary you've picked up along the way. What was his name again?"

"Urdnot Wrex," Marcus intoned slowly for her to memorize it.

" _Wrecks_ ," she intoned with a smirk. "What can you tell me of his personality?"

Marcus took a deep breath as he looked far ahead with a concentrated frown. "He's everything you'd expect from a krogan mercenary: a walking tank of impressive combat capabilities who loves his job. But there's something about him that makes him seem like an odd cookie in the bunch."

"What do you mean?"

"There is this air about him that makes him totally different than what you'd expect from a krogan. For one, he's not young; he has seen a lot of things and looks like he has a lot of experience. When I talked to him, I could see it in his eyes, face and body language that the man was careful and calculated. There are few things that one misses, and he thinks carefully on his actions. Like a tactician. Oddly enough, though, I have a gut feeling that he might be the most stabilizing factor on our ship – if he decides to come along, that is."

"Stabilizing factor?" Jaina parroted in wonder. "Wow. That's something. Well, will you contact him?"

"Definitely," Marcus said. "I've seen what he can do in combat; I'm not letting him slide through my fingers if I can help it. But I'm pretty sure he won't be needing much convincing."

"So, then," Jaina started musing out loud. "We have a powerful ship, and we will have a strong and capable crew." She then looked up at him and spoke in a cheerful tone: "I think Saren's as good as toast!"

..


	10. Chapter 10 - En Route to Feros

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

 _ **I can't believe that I've actually been misspelling Pressly's name all this time until now! Why didn't anyone tell me?! Ugh... now I have to go back and fix all of that...**_

 _ **There was an issue with the site not displaying reviews for several days before they corrected it, so I had to wait to respond to any of your reviews. Fortunately, that matter was solved.**_

 _ **Nothing much to say about this chapter – just people from the Normandy meeting each other for the first time.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 23.12.2016.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _This is a long one. Brace yourselves…_

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 _._

 **Chapter 10 – En route to Feros**

.

Marcus stood at the docks in front of the Normandy's airlock with Jaina at his side as he shook hands with Anderson and Hackett. The official handover of the Normandy was finished, and he was now its new commanding officer.

"I'll take good care of her, sir," Marcus assured Anderson.

"I'm sure you will, Marcus," the man replied with a smile. "This is your show, now, Spectre. Show them what you've got."

"He's right, Commander," Hackett spoke up. "You are now a fully independent force, and you are a force to be reckoned with. Use it wisely. I assume you will be going to Feros first?"

"I will, but I'm not liking our state of readiness. We are well stocked, but the problem is that it's standard Alliance gear that my teams are equipped with. Where we will be going, the standard gear won't just won't cut it; I need to procure advanced high-end equipment for my men."

"A reasonable stance," Hackett nodded. "On that matter, the Alliance has made contact with the colony of Zhu's Hope on Feros on the possibility of attack. They are not under attack yet, but the ExoGeni has agreed to step up its security and to maintain communication. If anything goes wrong, we'll know, so you will be free to gear-up your team accordingly for the oncoming missions. Do you have the funds you'd need for these purchases you've mentioned?"

"The Council has provided a fair amount of it. I think it will do," he replied.

"Good. However, in light of our yesterday's conversation, I have transmitted files concerning a few cases where your expertise would be of great assistance to the Alliance. Of course, Feros takes absolute priority, but if you were to take these assignments on, the Systems Alliance would be grateful – we would provide a not an insignificant fee. Considering that in lieu of the attack on Eden Prime our forces are stretched thin trying to secure our borders, money is not an issue – available forces are."

"I'll do what I can," Marcus assured them.

"We won't take any more of your time, then, Commander," Hackett spoke, to what they all exchanged final salutes and Hackett and Anderson walked away.

When they were well out of earshot, Jaina turned to Marcus.

"I think we should really consider taking these missions on," she said. "The Council may have transferred the initial funds, but we might quickly burn through it if we are to get all of the gear we plan to."

"I'm not regretting it," he said solidly. "Our standard Alliance gear is poorly suited for special missions. Except you, me, and Wrex, nobody around here has a full, top-of-the-line gear."

"True enough," she agreed.

"Well then, shall we go and meet our new team members in the conference room?"

"After you, sir," Jaina said with a smirk as she looked up at him.

Marcus chuckled. "Why do I like the way it sounds when it comes out of your mouth?" he asked rhetorically as he turned to walk into the ship's airlock.

"I wouldn't know what you mean, sir," she replied in feigned ignorance, while her eyes twinkled in amusement.

They passed through the CIC and went straight for the comm room. The six members of the new team were already there, and Marcus bid them all sit down on the chairs along the circular wall. Marcus and Jaina stood in front of the comm terminal, and he took a moment to look around the present faces.

"I'm glad to see you've all accepted to join us on this mission," he started. "We all know why we're here, and I brought you all here in this room so that we can get introductions out of the way.

"Starting from my far right are Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams and Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. They were with me on Eden Prime as a part of my response team for the retrieval of the Prothean beacon. Ashley is an exceptional soldier, a weapons specialist, and she is trained in piloting armored vehicles and Triton battle mechs. Kaidan is a biotic and has field technical expertise.

"Next to them is Dr. Liara T'Soni, a xenoarchaeologist. As this mission is expected to take us in search of lost Prothean technology that is in Saren Arterius's sights, her expertise will be invaluable. Though Dr. T'Soni has not had any formal military training, her biotic skills are, however, formidable, and she has honed them through the years of ruins exploration in the unstable regions.

"On the other side is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. She's the best we have on this ship in terms of technical expertise, and is also the closest thing we have to an expert on Geth – and we will be facing those a lot. She's trained to use pistols and shotguns, and I know for a fact that she can handle herself in a fight.

"Next to her are Garrus Vakarian and Urdnot Wrex. They have helped me save Tali from Saren's men. Garrus was a sniper in the turian Special Forces, as well as explosives, tech, and weapons expert. Wrex is a biotic, a battlemaster and a mercenary, and has had centuries of combat experience. He knows his way around the far Skyllian Verge, the Attican Traverse, as well as the Terminus systems – should we ever need to go there.

"As you can see, I have chosen all of you for a reason. Each of you has the unique set of skills that can prove essential for the success of this mission. Each of you was tempered in the field of combat in one way or another, and each of you knows how to pull his own weight."

He paused for effect, looking at each of them, in turn, to make sure they all were paying close attention, and then spoke:

"However, what we face now will surpass each of our individual capabilities. Individually, each of us might be the most tech savvy, or the toughest, or the one with the most experience, but I'm confident in the fact that the enemy we face – a rogue Spectre allied with killing machines, mercenaries, and biotic commandos – will have a way to counter each and every one of us individually. I want you to look at each other's faces now; that man's or woman's presence might prevent an enemy bullet from reaching you… and that accounts for something."

He waited for a few moments as the people's eyes wandered from one face to another's, and then spoke again:

"If any one of you is in need of anything – be it specialized equipment, help with anything, information, or anything mundane for that matter – talk to me, or Jaina, and we will provide it for you if it is possible. Same goes for any complaint or problem; talk to us, and it will be resolved one way or the other. Any questions?"

People were silent.

"Alright, then we're finished here. You are free to go about anywhere on the ship, as long as you don't interfere with crew's activities. Dismissed."

The people stood up from their seats and filed out of the room one by one.

"So, now what?" Jaina asked.

Marcus leaned with his back against the wall and crossed his arms in contemplation.

"I'm worried about our timeframe," he said. "It would take time finding proper armor and weapons, even worse if we're to modify them properly, and Saren is already two days ahead of us."

Jaina tapped her forefinger joint against her chin, thinking. "Well, true, Saren might be two days ahead, and the recording does indicate that he wants to attack Feros – but like Admiral said, nothing has happened with the colony yet. We'll be the first to know if it does. Waiting on Feros, as opposed to preparing accordingly, might have an adverse effect."

"Point taken," he agreed, then seemed to think on something.

"Whatcha thinking about?" she prompted him.

"About what type of gear do we actually pick up," he said. "Rosenkov materials, Kassa Fabrication, Armax Arsenal – all of those come to mind, but I think none of their items might be good enough for what we need; for what I want."

Jaina smiled, nodding in understanding. "You want something that can be heavily modded."

"Yeah," he confirmed. "Guns and rifles like Karpov, Breaker or Viper are good, but they're not designed for what I need. I need something with a heavy punch, and I do mean _heavy_."

"Something like your Mattock?"

"Yeah, something like my Mattock," he nodded. "A gun like that requires four times the amount of eezo and interlocked mass-effect fields to reduce recoil – a very expensive stuff, usually; but I have the means now." He spent a moment in silence, before he added, "And I have Spectre Access now."

He straightened out from where he was leaning and turned to access the terminal behind him. The screen activated as he accessed the high-level C-Sec network, sending out his credentials and entering the usually highly-restricted areas.

"Executor Palin spoke of this," he said as he typed the browsed. "He said that Spectres have access to some extremely rare stocks that C-Sec holds for them… there we go," he said as the search results displayed on the screen.

"Oh, wow," Jaina said, her eyes glinting as she leaned in to examine the screens. Rows upon rows of wonderful, wonderful weapons were displayed for their scrutiny.

"I'll say," he said, smirking.

She watched as Marcus marked a crate each of M-96 Mattocks, M-4 Shuriken SMGs, and RMP-12 Karpov heavy pistols. Her eyes then widened in alert when she noticed something, making her lean forward.

"There, right there!" she exclaimed as she pointed her finger at the item of interest.

"M-12 Locust," he murmured. "Four pieces in stock."

"That thing rips through shields as if they were tissue!" she spoke vehemently as she grabbed his bicep tightly. "You know what my Locust is like!"

"Right, and its light and accurate," he agreed, marking one of them.

"No, no, all four – please?!" she urged in a honey-sweet voice, giving him with her best puppy-eyed look. "You know how rarely they're found."

He laughed heartily. "Why can't you be like all those other girls that crave designer shoes instead?" he wondered sarcastically.

Her response was a quick peck on his cheek.

He chuckled and marked the Locusts down, then browsed further, marking a crate of semi-automatic sniper rifles, and a pair of anti-materiel ones. He switched to weapon mods and bought several assault and sniper rifle barrel extensions as well as heat sink materials, and then he purchased no less than two hundred grams of element zero. Jaina whistled.

"You're really going all out," she commented. "Do you think there'll be enough credits for it all?"

"There will be," he assured her. "We'll have to skip on the high-quality armor, though… but I have a few ideas on how to improve what we already have – hence all that eezo, as well as… this…"

"High-grade armor powergrid and mass effect arrays," Jaina finished for him.

"So that the shield emitters don't burnout once they're upgraded with the more powerful core," he said.

"We could purchase some lightweight armor augmentation plating," she ventured.

He seemed to think on it for a moment before he shook his head.

"No. The added weight might not be much as far as our team is concerned, but the additional plating is bulky; it may mess up with motor flexibility."

"Fair enough," she said. "Then we just have to wait until additional funding passes through and buy our people better armor later on."

"True," he said and finished it all off by making a bulk purchase on the site.

"That'll put a dent in our account," she commented when she saw the total price.

"Maybe, but this will be worth it," he said, then noticed the reply had already arrived. "Huh. They say they'll have the merchandise at our loading bay in thirty minutes."

"Spectre credentials make it a fast work," she said.

"Must be," he concurred, then sighed. "As soon as all of it's there, we're embarking on to Attican Beta. I intend to spend as much time as possible modifying those weapons. How long do you think the trip will last?"

"Well, Feros is in Attican Beta cluster, but is not in a mass relay system," she said. "I'd have to consult the navigation system be precise, but if I'm not mistaken, the shortest route to Attican Beta is via three primary relay pair jumps; it will definitely be longer than a day, even with Normandy's speed."

"Alright," he nodded. "It might actually give me enough time to do some work modding the weapons. You finish with all pre-flight checkups, and I'll go to wait for the new cargo."

They left the comm room and separated as he went down toward the cargo hold, and she stepped up onto the command post in front of the Galaxy map. As Marcus descended, Jaina contacted him over private comms.

"I've just confirmed our flight path," she said. "We'll have to take three jumps to the Attican Beta, plus a journey at FTL cruise from Hercules to Theseus system. It will take us approximately thirty-two hours to get to Feros."

"That sounds good," he replied. "We'll see how circumstances develop."

He ended the call, and then descended down into the cargo hold and waited for the transport with the purchased weapons and mod materials to arrive. He noticed Wrex setting up a larger-than average cot in one corner, Garrus filing his things into his locker, and Ashley doing maintenance on her rifle.

Garrus noticed him, and immediately stood up from his work and walked over.

"Commander, I wanted to ask you something," he ventured.

"Shoot," Marcus nodded.

"I've noticed the armored vehicle you have here, the M-35 Mako. Will we be using it extensively during our missions?"

"That is a safe assumption, yes," Marcus nodded. "What are you getting at?"

"Well, I've noticed that the vehicle sports a bit of dust," he immediately raised his hands. "Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a nitpicker; it's just that something like that shows that nobody is taking care of it at the moment."

"Quite a detective, huh," Marcus nodded approvingly, then looked to the Mako. "You're right, though. It would have normally been the driver's and gunner's duty to take care of the vehicle, but this Mako was transferred to the Normandy straight out of the assembly line; it never had its crew assigned. Its adaptive camo is still in its default factory white, as you see."

"If that's the case," Garrus ventured, "would it be alright if I could do some checkups on the vehicle? Especially since we'll be entrusting our lives to it? I was thinking that some calibrations to the main gun might not hurt."

"That's actually a great idea," Marcus said. "Knock yourself out!"

"Thank you, Commander, you won't regret this," Garrus said gratefully, then returned to finish his unpacking.

Marcus looked around and noticed Wrex examining one of the two Triton mechs that stood in the corner of the cargo hold.

"I'm afraid you wouldn't fit inside," Marcus commented as he approached him.

"Didn't intend to," Wrex rumbled as he walked around the armored walker. "I'm not sure what's the purpose of this thing. Us krogan don't have the need for something like this… not this tiny, anyway…"

"That's for holding the line or breaking through one," Marcus said. "It was designed as urban warfare frontline unit – meant to soak up the enemy fire while dishing out quite a bit of punch and covering fire for the infantry to maneuver around."

"Hmph," Wrex grunted in acknowledgement. "That's what you humans tend to do, alright. You never go for a straight up fight."

"Why should we?" Marcus asked, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Why should anyone? Flanking the enemy, striking from ambush – that means we kill more of him, while he kills less of us."

"And that's a wise method," Wrex replied, slightly surprising Marcus. "Don't get me wrong, Shepard, I like a good straight up fight every now and then. But when it comes to fighting for survival – now that's where you gotta get smart. You gotta strike the enemy hard and low, and receive the least punches while doing it. It's what krogan keep forgetting these days. It's actually what the turians are forgetting as well. And salarians and asari? They just keep dodging. No defensive line at all – just hit and run, hit and run… they don't get it, but it has cost them a lot more than the victories can account for. You, humans, are the only ones who mix it up, using all available tactics. I'd like to see where it takes you."

"Well, you'll get your chance soon enough, I think," he said noncommittally, before looking around to where Wrex had settled his sleeping cot and pointing with his chin toward it. "You settled in alright? You sure you don't want us to find you a better place somewhere on the crew deck?"

"I'll pass," he replied. "I like to keep close to where the guns are at."

Marcus shrugged. "Suit yourself."

He left Wrex to his devices and descended down the opened cargo bay ramp to wait for the incoming cargo.

Truth to their words, the C-Sec's armored truck was there in less than thirty minutes. It was escorted by an armed security detail under the close eye of a pair of C-Sec cruisers, as was the case with any increased amount of armament. Marcus checked the contents of every crate that were being arranged on the ground and verified the weapons' and mods' quality with his omni-tool. Same went for the materials and eezo he had brought, the latter being carried in an armored safe casing.

He called up several of the marines to take over the loading of the weapons and materials as he finished with the C-Sec officer in charge of the shipping, and then he walked back into the cargo hold, activating his comm.

"Jaina, we're through here. Are the pre-flight checks complete?"

" _All systems green, everything accounted for_ ," she replied right back.

"Spin the engines up. We're leaving for Feros immediately."

He ended the comm, and heard the sound of claxons as Jaina's voice sounded over the intercom:

" _All hands, prepare for lift off_."

The cargo bay ramp raised itself up and closed with a dull clunk, cutting off the outside noise of the engines that were spinning up.

"Where do you want these weapons, Commander?" Corporal Reigns called as he and other marines lugged the crates.

"There, by the fabricator," he said, pointing in general direction of the machine that could fabricate most of the parts a ship like this needed.

He journeyed up into the CIC and met up with Jaina who descended the command post and stood next to it.

"I think it's the time we address the crew and explain exactly the scope of our mission," Jaina said silently. "They've picked up by now that this is big, but they need to know just how big."

He nodded. "You're right."

He walked up on the command platform and cast his eyes on his post for the first time. Along the length of the railing in front of him, direct control terminals with holographic control panels were arrayed, and the Galaxy map spun slowly down in front of him.

He switched from the Galaxy map to the general captain's tactical overview, then tapped the ship-wide intercom. He passed one look around the CIC, noting people looking up from their posts at him. He spoke:

"Men and women of the Normandy, this is your commander speaking.

"As of this moment, we are on our way toward the deep regions of the Attican Traverse. Our mission is clear: to stop a man that has wrought havoc upon one of our worlds. You've seen the destruction; you've seen the bodies. But what happened on Eden Prime was just the beginning."

He paused, looking around the CIC, noticing he had everyone's attention. He continued:

"As of this moment, all of Normandy's personnel and ground teams' clearances have been elevated to intelligence level 4 for the purposes of this mission. What I am about to tell you goes far beyond the scope of everything you've ever faced or thought was possible."

Murmurs echoed around the CIC, the faces of the crew in utter astonishment. He counted on that.

"Approximately 24 hours ago, the Alliance and Citadel had intercepted an audio recording on which Saren Arterius discusses his plans with his most trusted accomplices. What we have heard was not pretty. According to the recording, Saren has uncovered the truth behind the Prothean's extinction some time ago. A species of extremely advanced sentient machines – what is currently believed to be a Prothean version of the Geth – was the one that systematically hunted them down to extinction, after which the machines had retreated to unknown regions of space. The Protheans called them the Reapers… and Saren's goal is to bring them back. Geth follow him because they believe that the Reapers represent the apex of synthetic evolution, and wish to elevate themselves to their level.

"I know what many of you are thinking. You're thinking of how crazy it sounds. If we never caught Saren on tape declaring his goals, we would have thought so too. Saren's goal on Eden Prime was the Beacon, as you all know. He wanted it because the Prothean beacon held one piece of the puzzle to finding and bringing the Reapers back."

He looked around the present faces, his gaze piercing into them all, his voice when he spoke rough and firm.

"Now, I want you to think carefully: would a man like Saren manage to gather _Geth_ to his side if there was no truth to this? Would the Geth tolerate him? And would Saren be able to achieve such total victory on Eden Prime if he has gone crazy?"

One could hear a pin drop.

"That is why I had volunteered to interact with the Beacon we had rescued from Eden Prime," Marcus said. "I have seen everything that Saren has seen, and it was not good. Whatever had happened to the Protheans, it _was_ the war of their extinction."

He took a deep, contemplating breath before continuing:

"Officially, the Council is skeptical concerning all this, and cites it as an excuse to not focus everything they have into stopping the most dangerous man – a traitorous Spectre! – from making far greater destruction than what he has done so far. But the truth is far simpler than that. The truth is that they do not have the guts, grit or balls that we have.

"So, while the Council cowers in fear from being attacked by Terminus factions, and while our own fleets are scrambling to protect our worlds from further attacks, _we_ are the ones who are being sent to exact justice. We are the ones that have the true grit. We, on this ship, no matter what species we are, represent _the best_ that this Galaxy has to offer, and we fly _the best_ and most advanced ship that this Galaxy has ever seen.

"Our ship is a silent Hunter-Killer that dreadnoughts will fear as we stalk them from the unseen shadows. We will hunt, we will prowl, we will track Saren relentlessly wherever he goes. We will make him remember that primal fear of the things that lurk in the dark. _We_ will be the ones that strike him down.

"So, follow me, and I will show you that even a Spectre is just a man. Follow me, and I will show you just how powerful you truly are. Shepard out!"

He closed the intercom, and the moment he did, a loud cheer erupted throughout the ship. It dumbfounded him for just a moment. He cast his eyes across the CIC, noting the fierce and solid looks that the people were sending his way, and all he could do was make a nod of recognition before he turned and stepped down from the command platform.

"I didn't expect that," he spoke quietly as he stepped next to Jaina, so only she could hear him.

"You're gonna have to get used to it," she replied with a small smile.

"What do you mean?" he asked with a frown.

Jaina thought on it, then spoke: "I'll explain sometime later, in private." She then smiled broadly when she saw his look of suspicion. "It's nothing bad; you'll just have to simmer a bit longer," she said with a shake of her head.

Marcus sighed.

"Alright," he acquiesced. "I'll busy myself down in the armory for the better part of the day. You have the bridge."

"Yes, sir," she replied formally.

* * *

Marcus stood in front of the fabricator as the machine went through its warm-up stage. He glanced down into the crate of M-96-s as he mentally reviewed the procedures needed to modify the weapons and the approximate time needed to complete them.

" _All systems operational,_ " the fabricator's VI called out.

Marcus activated his omni-tool and navigated through the data folders, bringing up the ones he had prepared, labeled "Mattock Auto v-3.05". He waved the omni-tool in front of the VI holo display, and spoke:

"Copy the data of the marked folder, unpack the model files and prepare for manufacturing."

He picked up the first M-96 from the crate and disassembled it on the workbench in short order, and then assessed the parts.

The laymen would say that the Mattock was different from other rifles out there because of its semi-automatic firing mode and larger rounds that held greater impact. But those people knew shit; the rounds weren't even larger than a standard rifle round, in fact.

In reality, the M-96's main difference from other rifles is its incredibly simple, yet incredibly robust operating mechanism. Its principle was not different from any other mass accelerator weapon, except that it had more eezo in its core, thus generating more punch. A lot more punch, in fact. An M-7 Lancer round delivered about 10 kilojoules of kinetic impact energy on bore exit. An M-96 generated 50! The recoil was much more powerful than an average rifle, but the Mattock was incredibly stable and precise – meaning that the thing only kicked back into the shoulder, without having a significant muzzle climb.

And that was what he sought. The Lancer was an inherently unstable rifle because of its high-mounted bore. If the Lancer had the Mattock's strength, it would experience a serious and uncontrollable muzzle climb. The Mattock modified to fire full auto, therefore, would be the weapon he would equip his ground team with.

Marcus grabbed the armored case that held a canister of eezo, then opened it and inserted the canister into the appropriate slot. He then grabbed a brick of heat sink material and placed it into another slot of the machine.

"Begin simultaneous production of the mass effect core modules, mass effect arrays, trigger mechanism, and heat sink systems provided by the files," he said, then took the disassembled Mattock's old mass effect core module and placed it into another slot. "Also, extract eezo from every module inserted into the extraction port from here on until specified differently."

" _Affirmative_ ," the VI replied.

Marcus then took a secondary fabricator and copied the relevant files from its omni-tool into it. This fabricator was smaller, workshop-grade, meant for breaking down items into omni-gel and was usually used for rebuilding damaged weapon casings or similar gear.

A superheated silicate-carbide "hardlight" box flashed into existence above the fabricator unit, and Marcus inserted the disassembled parts of the Mattock's casing into it and then activated the breakdown. Powerful micro-warp fields and searing heat of the flash-forged breakdown box began to melt the components into a paste before sucking it into the device's bowel and transforming it into omni-gel. As the new material was being readied, he tasked the fabricator to begin rebuilding the new, only slightly altered casing with the design specs he had inputted.

The two fabricators worked slowly and steadily, and Marcus took pleasure as he watched the fully shaped parts slowly emerging into the light of day as they were printed.

" _Set one – complete,_ " the big fabricator's VI announced a few minutes later.

He waited while the parts cooled down a bit, then picked them up and placed them in an orderly fashion on top of the workbench, making sure each of them passed his visual inspection. His eyes lingered the most on the absolutely massive new eezo core unit.

And then, he began with the reassembly of the brand new weapon.

New trigger system went in first. New eezo core followed, going into the body above and behind the main grip. Powerful mass effect arrays went in on the either side of the bore rail. Phasic oscillators for phased ammo clipped on over the bore length. Ammo-shaving ring-shaped array over the rail breech. Lower back stock casing. Upper back stock casing. Upper front casing. Sights. Lower bore. Detachable heat sink system incorporated above the foregrip. He-3-based battery into the handle grip through its bottom. Ammo block inserted into the lower back of the stock.

He clicked the safety off and pulled the action lever.

It was ready.

He raised the new weapon and scrutinized it for a long moment, almost like an ancient swordsmith. Only this weapon was deadlier. Far deadlier. His gaze roamed the gun, visualizing and appreciating the raw power that was hidden within, feeling accomplishment at what he has achieved with it.

"Well, that looks a bit different," Ashley suddenly spoke up somewhere off behind him as she looked at the new weapon.

Marcus turned to look at her and noticed that all of the specialists he had brought onto the Normandy – Wrex, Garrus, Tali, Liara, as well as Kaidan – were there as well.

"Hey there," he greeted them all. "You need me for something?"

"Some of us actually came to deposit our combat gear at our lockers," Liara said, smiling sheepishly as she pointed to the bag she has brought. "And we ended up grouping together when we saw you working."

"We didn't mean to be intrusive, Commander," Kaidan said defensively, briefly raising his hands. "It's just that we were interested in what you're doing."

"If you don't mind me asking, Commander," Garrus spoke up. "What have you done with that Mattock?"

"Yeah, we've noticed you've placed some seriously weird parts inside, and out," Ashley said. "It looks different."

Marcus returned his eyes to the weapon and nodded in affirmation of Ashley's assessment. It looked almost the same as the standard Mattock: same shape, same dirty white color, but the prominent heat dissipation panels – parts of the detachable heat sink clip system – that filled the once empty area between upper and lower bores gave a different, more muscular look to the weapon.

"Here," Marcus said and offered the weapon to her. "What do you think?"

Ashley picked up the weapon and weighted it in her hands.

"It's heavy," she said with a raise of her eyebrows, then placed it against her shoulder and aimed down the sights. "It's even heavier than the standard Mattock. What have you done to it?"

"I made it fully automatic, among other things," he replied.

"Mattock has twice as powerful round than any standard assault rifle," Wrex said, narrowing his eyes. "If all you've done is adjust its trigger mechanism for a full auto fire, it's gonna thrash like a pack of mating varren!"

"Not exactly the words I'd use," Ashley spoke slowly as she gave a guarded look to the large krogan. "But yeah, skipper – won't this thing go all over the place when I shoot?"

"No," Marcus stated with a quick shake of his head. "I've given it a five times more powerful eezo core. The inertial dampening puts its level above that of Armax's Crossfire line."

"So, that canister over there really is eezo?" Garrus commented, looking toward the fabricator. "Expensive. Never thought I'd see anyone put so much money into an assault rifle."

"Definitely not something any ordinary army would supply its troops with," Kaidan commented, looking at others present.

"Neither is it something any ordinary merc would have the funds for, which is why you won't see it there, either," Wrex added.

"And it's not like you could just go about extracting eezo from every gun you find lying about and putting it into a newly-fabricated core container," Tali explained as she looked around others. "That's the quickest way to have it blow up in your face, or if you're lucky to just burn out the arrays. You need to calculate the ratios. You need to experiment. Building a gun is not as easy as it seems." She turned her eyes in wonder toward Marcus. "I had no idea you know so much about tech stuff, Commander; I had no idea you had the knack."

Marcus leaned back against the workbench, crossing his arms and shrugging. "I picked up a few things here and there. It served as a good basis for when I went on to get a master's engineering degree from the Alliance Navy."

"You have a high university education?" Liara exclaimed in surprise.

"So does Jaina," Marcus replied with a shrug as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Hers is a different field, though."

There was a moment of pause.

"And yet you're both Spec-ops soldiers?" Ashley exclaimed wide-eyed.

Marcus sighed, shaking his head with a small tired smile. "Why is it that whenever someone says _"Spec-Ops soldier"_ , everybody immediately assumes that they're supposed to be a narrow-minded grunt with challenged mental capacities?"

"Ah… s-sorry, Skipper, I-I didn't mean it like that!" Ashley quickly stepped up to correct herself. "I mean, I understand that people are complex. I can drill a man between the eyes at a hundred meters, but I still like to read and recite classical poetry, and I… I… did not just say that out loud…"

"Fraid you did, Ash," Kaidan muttered with a wry smirk, to her horrified looks.

"I don't get it," Wrex commented to Garrus, Tali and Liara. "You get it?"

"Must be a human thing," Liara said.

"In any case, Commander," Garrus spoke up slowly, drawing Marcus's attention and wisely changing the subject back. "Would you mind telling us what is it exactly that you did with this gun?"

Marcus outstretched his arm to Ashley, wordlessly asking for the rifle back with a flick of his fingers. She returned the rifle, and he promptly went through the paces, disassembling it in short order and talking through the modded parts.

"Modifying the trigger mechanism for a full auto fire was the simplest thing," he said. "Just tweak the power switch circuitry, and you're good to go. The increased mass effect core splits the load into three parts: enhanced round velocity and weight, inertial dampening, and using the mass effect to capture heat buildup and pump it into new and enhanced heat sinks. The heat sinks surround the upper and lower bore, right above the fore grip, and can be unclipped – like so – from the gun, and quickly replaced with another identical clip so that it resets the heat saturation. Basically, if by any chance you've been maintaining such a sustained fire that the heat sink is oversaturated, you just unclip it and replace it with a new and cool one to keep firing, while clipping the old one to your closest available mag plate to cool off."

As he finished reassembling and priming the rifle, and returned it to slack-jawed Ashley, there was utter silence among the crew.

"Damn… now that's impressive!" Garrus stated, pointing a finger at Marcus, then looking at others. "How come no one ever thought of such replaceable heat sinks?"

"No idea," Marcus said truthfully, shaking his head helplessly. "If you think about it, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable solution to me."

Tali hopped in place excitedly.

"Yes, but I can't believe that you've managed to rig that kind of forced-action heat sink system using mass effect fields!" she exclaimed. "It's like your ship's stealth system, only much more rudimentary – except, instead of trapping the heat in the heat sinks, it deliberately dissipates it. But nobody else thought of using it in the gun! It must be able to fire far more shots before overheating!"

Marcus nodded. "I've designed it to be able to fire over two hundred rounds in a single sustained burst before reaching heat oversaturation limit," he said, then inclined his head. "If it was firing normal rounds, that is."

"Wait, you're telling me this thing is not firing normal rounds?" Garrus asked softly.

"Skipper," Ashley spoke up with a broadening grin and a maniacal glint in her eyes as she clutched the rifle closer to her bosom. "Are you telling me it fires the explosive rounds like your own gun?"

Marcus had to smirk at her expression. "Yeah, though not like a standard high-explosive round mod. That one is mounted on top of the bore and pumps mass-effect oscillating fields as the round passes. This one uses mass effect emitters on the outside of the bore chamber to do the same thing – a trickier thing to construct, but you can put an additional standard ammo mod. And it pumps the larger-than-average pellet – which reminds me: the larger round means the shaving block has only about four hundred rounds worth of material in it, rather than the standard two thousand, so…"

"Doesn't matter. Can I keep it?" Ashley asked as she practically unconsciously pressed the weapon protectively against her bosom.

"Be my guest, Chief," Marcus chuckled. "I'll be making that weapon for the entire team, anyway. They'll be ready before we reach Feros."

"Before Feros?" Garrus asked skeptically. "I see that it took you a short while to construct one model… But how did you manage to make modifications of such an extent in such a quick manner?"

"Because it took me over two years to perfect it with my own gun," Marcus said. "I've spent countless hours at my terminal or omni-tool, making the 3D models and analyzing their work, having some of it explode in my face a few times until I perfected it… What I did here was just uploading the already-existing blueprints and letting the machine work."

"If that's the case," Garrus spoke as he stepped up, "can I work with you? I'd be really interested in making one, especially since I believe some calibrations might be in order."

Marcus looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. You can build your own rifle. But that Mako will also need some work if we're to use it on Feros."

"Don't worry," Garrus assured him calmly. "That too will be done."

"I don't doubt," Marcus said, smirking as he picked up an M-96 from the crate and tossed it to Garrus who caught it deftly with one hand.

"You know, Skipper," Ashley spoke slowly from where she moved to place her new rifle at the farther end of the weapons workbench, "I don't think we can call this rifle a Mattock anymore. It should have a new name."

"She's right," Garrus intoned pointedly as he turned to look back at him.

Marcus looked around the group, looking at their expectant faces. Even Wrex, hardened and practical as he was, was looking at him. Marcus spoke up,

"N7 Striker."

There was a moment of silence as everyone absorbed the new name.

"I'm gonna call you Dink," Ashley addressed her N7 Striker, making everyone look at her strangely.

" _Dink_?" Kaidan parroted with a grimace.

"That's right. Because when the enemy comes, I'm gonna _dink_ 'em," Ash declared proudly.

Kaidan opened his mouth, and then closed it, with an audible click of his jaw, and a troubled look on his face.

Wrex's roaring laughter filled the cargo hold.

Marcus chuckled with everyone else before he turned to Garrus.

"Come on," he motioned with his head, and the turian followed.

The two men stepped up to the workspace, and Marcus proceeded to guide Garrus through the process as he himself took up another M-96 and proceeded with disassembling it as the turian followed his work.

It was a quick and easy to fashion all of the needed Strikers. Between the high-end military fabricators and Garrus being a quick learner, his rifle was done just as fast as Marcus had assembled the third one. The turian proceeded to disassemble and reassemble his rifle a few times, acquainting himself with its parts, weight, as well as applying maintenance oils.

And when all of the Strikers were finished, he didn't stop. The crate that held the remaining M-96-s was closed down, and the one with the four M-12 Locusts was opened up.

Marcus worked quickly, picking up one weapon, examining it, disassembling it, making sure that this weapon was the same subtype Jaina used. Five times more expensive than an average SMG, the weapons was an engineering masterpiece. Still, a few simple modifications to the framework, an extended barrel, and the mass-effect-pumped heat sinks would still be needed for the people using it had the greatest possible advantage.

He uploaded the files to the fabricators and issued the production command for the two sets of modified Locust parts. Thirty minutes later, both of the weapons were sporting their new looks.

Just as he had finished clasping the barrel extension onto the other Locust, he heard Liara's voice from behind him:

"Commander, can I have a word with you?" she asked.

"Of course," he said as he placed the SMG on the desk and turned toward her, leaning against the desk and folding his arms across his chest. "Just the person I wanted to find, anyway. But by all means – go ahead first!"

Liara clasped her hands behind her back and cast her eyes to the ground for a split second. Her foot was fidgeting slightly – betraying the nervousness of a young woman.

"I couldn't help but see that you had modified several rifles for our use," she started, and slowly raised her eyes to look up at him. "However, I am not entirely sure I'd be able to use one properly. I've held the rifle in my hands, and I find it to be a bit… heavy for me. Being untrained in ways of the soldier, and being a biotic to boot, well… it doesn't exactly mix well with heavy loads."

"I understand," Marcus nodded. "I wasn't expecting you to use it anyway, but I wanted you to have the option."

"Thank you, Commander," she said with obvious relief and relaxation of her posture. "I was hoping that it wouldn't offend you since you've taken the time; I wasn't sure if I should consider it a gift or something else… I don't have a lot of experience with humans or their customs."

"You don't have to worry about such things with me, Doctor," Marcus replied. "I take little care for perceived offensive content, and take a lot of care for my people to be equipped for all situations. Speaking of which – what kind of field gear do you use, anyway?"

"I… can show you if you'd like," she pointed with her hand invitingly toward her locker.

Marcus nodded and stood up from where he was leaning against the workbench, and followed her to her gear locker. He did a quick examination once she opened it, noticing a pistol, an SMG, and a set of light-class armor. There were no shotgun, sniper or assault rifles present.

"I had expected for you _not_ to have a shotgun or sniper and assault rifles, but I thought you only had a pistol," Marcus said as he took the SMG from her locker and examined it.

"It… comes with the line of work, I suppose," Liara said slowly.

"Hmm… you've mentioned something in the lines of that back at the institute," Marcus noticed, then smirked, speaking lightheartedly, "I'd imagine that archaeologists' tools were shovels and brushes, not SMGs."

Liara laughed at the connotation.

"Well, yes – normally, that'd be the case," she said. "But the thing is that the best locations of Prothean archaeological finds – as well as those of many other ancient spacefaring species that predated them, for that matter – are actually located throughout the Skyllian Verge, Attican Traverse, and the Terminus Systems. As you know, those regions are not exactly… stable. Pirates, slavers, opportunistic mercenaries – all of them wouldn't bat an eyelash at attacking a scientific expedition. Archaeologist teams need to protect themselves."

"I didn't know that part about the location of the most of Prothean ruins," Marcus said. "Though it makes sense if you look at Eden Prime and Feros for that matter."

"Indeed," Liara said – her voice having its usual smoky and low tone, but her eyes glimmering with excitement. "It is my theory that the Prothean homeworld comes from some of these regions; its location is still a mystery."

"And thus you ended up floating in undesirables up to your neck," Marcus said with a smirk.

"You could say that," Liara agreed, smiling back. "It happened, oh… six times, I think. Seven, if you want to count a tribe of vorcha squatters armed with clubs and rocks. Some events were harmless, though it was touch and go a few times – mainly the one time with krogan and batarian slaver gang."

"That means you have more experience fighting than many full-time soldiers," Marcus noted with significance, then raised the SMG. "Did this help?"

"It did, in fact," she said. "My biotics are an excellent thing for close quarters and group disabling, but that weapon was the one that gave the finishing blow in most cases. It's an ERSC Tempest, though I'm sure you already know that… I was wondering if you'd tell me if it's any good."

Marcus did a quick disassembly of the weapon right on top of the lockers.

"Looks like an older version of the Tempest," he commented as he examined the components, and noted the lack of mods. "Reliable for its role, but looks pretty stock; you didn't mod it at all."

"I know how to apply warp field onto ammo using my own biotic skill," she said hopefully.

"A good skill to have," Marcus agreed. "Warp ammo mods are still under development. However, we'd need something a little more deliberate than this."

He reassembled the weapon in short order, then moved to the workbench and took one of the modified M-12-s.

"Here," he said as he offered her the weapon. "How does the weight seem – first tell me that."

Liara took it up with both hands and measured up the small weapon.

"Significantly lighter than the Striker," she said with relief as she looked up at him thankfully, then returned to examining it. "Only a bit heavier than my Tempest, but nothing significant, though."

Marcus pointed a finger at a certain section of the weapon and spoke:

"The Locust is by default very good at taking out shields; that's what it was made for. I figured you'd want to apply warp field to your ammo, so instead of going crazy like I did with the Striker, I added a standard explosive ammo mod attached over the bore. You can turn it on or off right there. Now, the Locust packs a greater punch than the Tempest, and has very low recoil, but fires more slowly. It's not meant for spray-and-pray."

"A what?" Liara asked with confusion.

"Spraying a hailstorm of rounds downrange and praying they hit what they're supposed to," Marcus clarified right of the bat.

"Oh!" she exclaimed in understanding, then looked down at her weapon. Marcus spoke up:

"I understand that you'd want to practice a bit with it first, but we don't have a shooting range on the ship. But, I think we'd get plenty of opportunities soon enough. Just remember that whatever scuffle were to spring up, you take cover, stay behind, and use that weapon to pick of targets of opportunity. Understood?"

"Understood, Commander," she nodded.

"Good. Now, let me see your armor," he said.

Liara placed her new Locust into a free slot in the locker, then showed him a lower compartment that held the armor. Marcus removed the cuirass and examined it.

"This is exceptionally light," he commented as he examined the above-average shielding. "From what I see, these shield capacitors could raise more than 700 kilojoules of energy at max capacity… and the generator could very well put out over 200 kJ per second. Who designed it?"

"Serrice Council, on Thessia," Liara said proudly. "It's not commercially available."

"Then how did you get it?" he asked with genuine interest.

"I… suppose it came with the T'Soni name," she said after a moment.

"Well, it's good that you have that name, then," Marcus commented in all seriousness, then re-deposited the cuirass back into its place in the locker, closed it, and then leaned with his elbow against it, turning toward Liara.

"I've noticed you hesitated when speaking right there, though…" he said slowly. Liara silently looked away into the distance. "Something bothers you."

She was silent for a moment. "I suppose that I feel… conflicted about the fact that I am Benezia's daughter in a team that hunts her," she said, then looked at him with a small smile on her lips. "Don't get me wrong, though; I had cut ties with Benezia long ago. It was decidedly a fight to end all fights. Still, I cannot help but feel strange that I carry gear that was ultimately provided by the wealth and influence I had earned by simply being her daughter."

He chuckled, his lips spreading into a full smile. "Sorry, I didn't realize sooner."

"Didn't realize what?" she asked genuinely.

"You're worried about how others here on this ship will look at you," he said not unkindly.

Liara dipped her head slowly, looking to the side, avoiding his eyes.

"That… is true," she admitted, then sighed as she leaned back against the lockers. "That was the problem that followed me ever since I was young, I have to admit," she said ruefully. "Being from a privileged household in school was… problematic. Not to mention me being a pureblood."

Marcus squinted. "Pureblood?" he asked.

"Having both parents asari," she clarified. "It's considered an archaic and a backward practice these days. Asari consider it a matter of genetic advancement of our whole species to import genes from alien species to improve racial traits. Remaining pure asari is… not fashionable. It's… complicated. In any case, those few rich family daughters excluded me from their company because I was a pureblood. Other kids excluded me because I was automatically labeled as a rich snob."

Marcus took a deep breath as he leaned back against the lockers next to her and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I understand what you went through," he said compassionately. "Believe it or not, I used to have had a very similar problem, though one of opposite quality. I used to have been very poor. I was a street rat – a violent kid that ran with street gangs. Other kids were… well… not rich, but comparatively _much_ _wealthier_ – and they had nothing but disdain for me. If you account the fact that I was a rare biotic in a world that only just encountered such things, well… you get the picture. To them, I was a freak of nature, who, in their eyes, was abandoned by his parents because of what he was."

Liara smiled compassionately back. "What was that human saying… about two people being from the same coin…?"

He smirked, nodding. "Two sides of the same coin," he said, sharing a look with her. "Yeah, that very much applies to the two of us."

"How did you come on top of your situation?" Liara queried with a small smile, her gaze wide-eyed, showing genuine interest.

"I fought with everything I had," he said, looking forward into the distance. "Not the battle of brawn, but the one of wits. One of thinking and planning, and cunning… until I managed to get on top and to rise above them all. When I did, their petty jabs became no more than a bunch of fleas trying to be snarky."

"It takes its toll, though, doesn't it?" Liara said knowingly.

"It does," he said, nodding importantly. "The constant fight, the depression, the… question whether you're the one who's truly insane or a freak. For a kid, such things are big. Profound. Tell a man that he's a fool once, and he'll know it's not true; tell it to him over, and over, and over, and sooner or later he's bound to start believing it. You need to be an outstanding person to protect yourself from it, especially at such a malleable age."

She harrumphed. "Isn't that the truth," she said ruefully. "I had to fight that for decades it takes us asari to grow. I had to first realize and understand that I was better than they were. And then, I had to learn how to strike back, how to manipulate so that I'm not the one being hurt. It sometimes backfired, making things worse. But I learned from my mistakes; it helped me a lot when I finally went to college, to study Protheans."

"Your unconventional approach and theories must've been hard for you."

"They were," she admitted. "I realized early on that the world of Prothean xenoarchaeology was just as bad as high school. And even more ruthless. The other researchers – matriarchs for the most part – will do anything to maintain their reputation high – to keep the funding for their research flowing. All young maidens would become their followers; their acolytes. They did that for the purpose of gaining prestige by being labeled a famous matriarch's assistants. I, however, went rogue from the very first moment. It didn't make me very popular, as you might imagine." She giggled then. "Fortunately, I had already had the first-hand experience on how to deal with naysayers."

"You spoke of that the first time Jaina and I met you back at the research institute."

She dipped her head. "That's right. The matriarchs can be very arrogant and difficult to deal with. I learned how to manipulate them – I had to – but it takes its toll as well. Sometimes I just needed to run away. I could spend months alone in far-away dig sites for every one week I'd spend amongst them at the universities and institutes. It was a retreat and rehabilitation as much as enjoyment." She turned to look at him. "And what about you? Did you come to a place where your previous experience could be useful?"

He sighed. "In a manner of speaking. When I joined the Alliance, I was nothing if not durable – both physically and mentally. The brain games they play on you in the boot camp did not work for me. But it was also a problem. The army does not suffer cogs that don't turn the way it wants them to. Being a lone wolf is not a good thing to be when you're in the army. I had to rise above them pushing me to be another brick in the wall, but without being disruptive. If I didn't, if I wasn't striving to be different than everyone, I never would have become an N7. No one ever became great if they followed what everyone else was doing. And I knew early on I needed to push for just that – to be the N7 and a commanding officer. As an N7, it was _expected_ of a spec-ops soldier to be a lone wolf to an extent, so he could achieve his tasks. As a Spectre, even more so."

"It must've been an uphill battle," she commented compassionately, understanding all too well.

"Just as what it must've been for you, too," he said, then straightened from the locker he was leaning against and cast a gaze across the cargo hold.

"But in the end, your effort will land you in a place such as this," he said, nodding toward the Normandy. "A place where the best gather. Where they know how difficult the life can be, and that it doesn't matter what's your name, your past or where you come from. Whether you were a street gang rat or came from a privileged wealthy doesn't matter to them. What matters is who you are, in here, and in here," he said, tapping his heart and temple respectively as he turned toward her, smiling. "And that you have each other's backs. And that gear you have there will ensure that."

Liara laughed airily with a genuine smile on her lips before she looked up at him, beaming.

"Well, wasn't that an amazing way to convince someone not to worry about anything she might have been worrying about," she said, then straightened as well, standing in front of him and nodding. "I'll do my best to remember everything you said, Commander. Thank you." She turned to leave, but spoke up once more, looking at him over her shoulder: "And, Commander? Please, call me Liara."

"Any time, Liara," he replied.

The young asari left the cargo bay, and Marcus watched her go, nodding satisfactorily to himself at her springy step before he returned to modifying the weapons.

His next stop was the sniper rifles.

"I overheard the conversation you've had with the good Doctor," Wrex's voice rumbled as the big krogan approached him from behind. "Makes me wonder whether it's really because you want to help her, or if it is just to make sure your ground team gets the best chance."

Marcus cast a brief glance at him from the corner of his eye. The middle-aged krogan seemed to be skeptical about everyone and everything; not unlike he still was to an extent somewhere deep down.

"Helping both her and the team is not mutually exclusive," he said as he hefted one of the heavy anti-materiel rifles onto the work bench. "I may want to insure my team has no loose screws, but that doesn't mean I can't help somebody."

"Risky," Wrex commented. "How do you know helping people won't come back to bite you in the ass, hmm?"

"I take precautions, Wrex, I'm not a moron," Marcus said sternly as he began disassembling the heavy rifle. "I watch people carefully; I study them and take care of those minute things. I grew up on the streets of Earth where that skill meant the difference between life and a state worse than death. I was a member of a gang. I did things to protect myself. I had to watch my back every single day, and be very careful who I trust. I've had a lot of experience with it; I know who to trust. I'm sure you've had something like this through your lifetime."

"Hmm," Wrex rumbled in affirmation. "You could say that. I wouldn't be alive right now if I wasn't a good judge of people. I hadn't spoken a single word with the Doctor, but I see things that others might not. She may be young and hopeful, but she ain't an innocent girl. There is a darker side to her; that girl has seen some bad things. She has killed before. And she had had to fight for things in her life before."

"She admitted as much," Marcus said. "The University of Armali is a backstabbing place when it comes to recognition. She had to fight to maintain her career against her peers, and she has spent a lot of time in the Terminus systems exploring Prothean ruins where she came upon pirates and such a few times."

Wrex rumbled with a nod. "Figured as much. She must've seen her fair share of fights, then."

"I've seen her in action on a security cam recording," Marcus replied casually while he examined the rifle parts. "She's _good_."

"That much is obvious if she is still alive and un-enslaved by those Terminus pirates," Wrex said. "Which gotta make you wonder why did she abandon the luxury of T'Soni name and the cultured environment of the university for the sake of uncertainty of the frontier. Makes me think that the girl has a lot more adventurous spirit than she lets on, despite her apparently reclusive nature."

"Well, then, I guess we'll just have to remedy that reclusiveness, now won't we?" Marcus stated as he uploaded the data files to the fabricator. "No good ever comes from trying to subdue or choke down your true nature."

"A lotta people from the civilized world would disagree with you," Wrex rumbled slowly, one of his cunning eyes trained on Marcus. "They want you to be polite and diplomatic."

Marcus dropped one of the rifle parts back onto the workbench in annoyance.

"You're fishing for my stance on the matter, Wrex?" he demanded, seeing right through the battlemaster's intent as he leveled a cold gaze on him. "You think it'll tell you what kind of a man I am? What am I trying to achieve here? Well?"

Wrex was silent for a moment, just staring right back and measuring the man up.

"I'm pretty sure I can see already," Wrex replied slowly. "You smell of it from a mile away. You, and your woman. It's the details that one needs to make sure of. To see whether your words match with what you exude; whether you're trying to hide your true nature – just like what you said just now concerning Liara."

Marcus diverted his gaze with a strong inhale through his nose as he thought on Wrex's words.

"Alright," he said before he turned bodily toward Wrex and leaned with his side against the Workbench. "I'll tell you what I think of the civilized world. The civilized world is a bunch of lazy sheep that want to be fed and entertained without having to work for it. They think that they're the center of the world and that everyone should conform to their notions of proper 'civilized' behavior, and that they should always be right. Well, I hold a great dislike for their notions of propriety and civility and don't want it anywhere near me. It is only the men and women that had experienced the ugly face of life and came on top of it that I hold all respect for, and are the only ones I can establish the sort of relationship that I like. There's no bullshitting, no hypocrisy, and I know I can depend on them."

"Yet, as a soldier, you're sworn to defend those very same lazy sloths you so dislike," Wrex jabbed purposefully.

"Not them," Marcus stated firmly, shaking his head. "It's the few good men and women that live among them that I do. By being here and leading by example, I want to draw those few closer to me, because I know I can build something worthwhile with them, and to hell with everyone else."

He turned toward the fabricator and punched in the activation as he continued speaking:

"Now, I look out for me and mine. And that doesn't include anyone else until I decide that it does. I want to ensure the best life, and I want to do it with people I can trust with my life, and who also trust me with theirs. Such a thing is not found, but built, but once it's finished, there's no better thing in the world. Together, such men and women can shape the world by their will. That's what I do."

"So, you want to build a good krantt," Wrex rumbled with a nod. "Hard thing to do."

"The hardest," Marcus acquiesced.

"So, how's that working out for ya?"

Marcus looked at him sideways, then raised his arms, motioning toward the ship that surrounded them before lowering them down.

"I'd say I'm doing pretty damn good so far," he said. "Some of the best men and women happened to have gathered on this ship. They just need some… fine tuning."

Wrex rumbled pensively as he watched Marcus for a moment, before silently turning and walking off. Marcus watched him leave, noticing the aura of pensiveness around the krogan. There was something on Wrex's mind. Not something as present like the chase for Saren, but something that is lingering for a while now. He just had to pick at it a bit. Carefully. There'd be time for that later.

Now, though, he returned to the finished parts of the sniper rifle and reassembled it in short order before he called out:

"Hey Garrus, catch!" he yelled and threw the heavy rifle using both hands towards the turian.

Garrus quickly turned and readily welcomed the thrown rifle into his hands. He released some kind of deep, flanging turian trill, and his face showed appreciation.

"Molotok anti-materiel rifle by Rosenkov Materials," he said.

"The Systems Alliance wants to introduce it under designation M-98 Widow, in a couple of years," Marcus said. "I've changed a couple of things on it, though; I added the new heat sink. It cools much faster, and can launch as much as three rounds before sink saturation limit."

"I'll get right on it," Garrus said.

Marcus nodded, then picked up the other anti-materiel rifle and laid it down on the workbench. He sighed as looked down at it.

"You're going to be a completely different beast by the time I'm done with you," he murmured quietly.

He accessed his omni-tool and opened up the folder with a name " _Project: Devastator_ " and displayed the 3D model in front of him. And he smiled.

* * *

Marcus had spent more than twelve hours in total, modifying the weapons and armor of the crewmembers that he knew needed it. A lot of eezo was spent upgrading some of the ground team's shielding. When it came to armor, Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus, and Tali were severely under-geared. Both Kaidan and Ashley used standard-issue Alliance light and heavy armors, Garrus had his C-Sec blue and black standard set, while Tali's suit was only that – a suit.

So, he had started with upgrading the shields, which was the easier part. All four of the aforementioned people had had very low shielding, with only Tali having more than 250 kilojoule capacity in her shields, and that was because she had a number of tricks up her proverbial sleeve. Now, though, all four of them sported over 600 kilojoules of maximum shield capacity, with a power output of 120 kilojoules per second when not under fire and a 20 kilojoules per second impact threshold. It actually surpassed the shielding of Wrex's heavy armor by a small margin.

When he had finally entered the captain's quarters, _his_ quarters, he felt tired. Very tired. But it was the tiredness of the good kind. He felt that he actually did something worthwhile. That kind of "tired" was the best kind in the world, and it left him feeling like he could do more still.

Yet he felt that there was this one little thing missing to make the day just right.

He sat down in the chair in front of the terminal and looked around what was once Captain Anderson's and was now his own room. It still had that scent of new. The Captain wasn't there long enough to even unpack properly before Eden Prime. The room was bland, and a color blend of dark navy blue and gray. It served its purpose, true, but… even he could tell that it needed a something more.

There was a chime at the door.

"Enter," he said, the VI recognizing his voice and opening the doors.

Jaina stepped in and strutted slowly through the room, her hands behind her back as she looked around, the doors closing shut behind her. He realized what that missing little thing was; it was walking through the room right now.

"Looks kind of bland, don't you think?" she commented, pointing to the room.

He smirked as he stood up and walked toward her. "My thought exactly. Are you offering your feminine touch in decorating?"

His arms slithered around her waist, and he pulled her firmly against him for a kiss.

"Hmmmm," she hummed into his mouth as her hands reached up to his hair, and her nails raked gently through his buzz cut.

"Hmm, someone's been having a good day," she commented when they separated.

"What can I say – work fulfills me," he replied with a triumphant smirk. "I've made new weapons, new gear, augmented shields to the party members that sorely needed it… It was a good day today. Only one thing could make it better, and it came to my quarters like it was ordered."

"Captain, sir, but what might you be talking about?" she asked with a look so innocent and cute that he just had to steal a new kiss. Jaina gasped in mock shock and a mischievous smirk. "Sir! This is a breach of conduct!"

He spanked her lightly on the bottom.

"Shut up, you!" he said with a smile. "If you keep that up I won't be able to hold myself in line."

"Behave!" she chided playfully with a light slap of her palm against his chest and extricated herself from his arms.

"It's pretty hard when you're right at arm's reach, beautiful," he replied with a chuckle.

"Well, be that as it may, you _will_ behave out there, mister," she poked him in the chest.

"Oh, make no mistake, beautiful: we will behave out there… in here, though, while the doors are locked? I will hold nothing back."

"Down, boy," she chided with a smile. "The daily report needs to be finished first. The play comes later."

"Alright, Commander Shepard," he spoke up as he sat down in front of the terminal. "What is the situation with our flight plan?"

She moved and sat on the table, right next to where he was typing on the terminal.

"We've transited to Attican Beta a few hours ago, and we're on our way from the Hercules to the Theseus system," she said as she crossed her feet. "We'll be there in about twenty hours."

"We made a discharge earlier, right?"

"Right," she confirmed. "We had landed onto one of gas giant Zatorus's moons. And you're not gonna believe this: when we did a regular deep scan to see whether the surface was solid enough for landing, we found there's a shitload of gold lying just underneath. At least three hundred metric tons."

"That _is_ a lot of gold," Marcus chuckled as he made some notes on his terminal. "It gives me an idea as to how we could earn a bit of funding on the side."

"Scan the planets we pass by with our superior pulsar sensor array, claim them, and then sell the prospecting rights for a percentage?" she declared with a knowing smirk. "I've already contacted Hackett. The Alliance will be more than willing to offer a fee."

He looked back at her with his eyebrows raised high in surprise.

"Well, now… I know I shouldn't be, but you always find a new way to pleasantly surprise me," he said, smirking. "What would I do without you?"

"Wallowing in self-misery or something," she replied cockily.

"Hmm, maybe," he said as he feasted his eyes with her form before he leaned back into the chair and sighed. "But back to the business at hand. We have – what did you say? – twenty hours until we reach Feros?"

"Mm-hm," she nodded.

"So, eight hours of nighttime here, followed by twelve more to prepare," he thought out loud. "Were there any other situations in the CIC? Is there something that I'd need to handle?"

"Relax; I took care of everything," she replied. "All the reports are filed, and the only thing you have to do is stamp it with your bio-signature. It was pretty much an uneventful day."

"Damn, woman," he spoke. "You sure are doing everything you can to make my life easy, aren't you?"

"Well… let's just say that I have a vested interest in making something _else_ hard on you," she replied.

He chuckled. "Well then, I suppose I better hit the shower," he said. "What about you? Are you joining me?"

"In the shower?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I was thinking of that big, comfy, queen-sized bed that comes with captain's privileges, actually," he clarified, smirking. "Though I won't say no to sharing a shower, too. Have you brought your stuff in here?"

She laughed out loud. "I've brought a bag of toiletries when no one was looking," she replied. "Didn't think you'd get rid of me so easily once I got this close to you, did ya?"

"I wouldn't dream of it," he replied as he stood up and moved to hug her.

She hugged him right back, burying her face into his neck and inhaling his scent deeply. She mumbled incoherent sounds of content as he rubbed her back reassuringly. It always felt good when someone rubbed your back reassuringly, even if there was no reason.

"Come on," he spoke as he tugged her shirt gently. "Let's relax in that shower."

They made the shower slow and languid. The bathroom was small, and barely had enough room for them both under the single nozzle, but they took the most of it as they gently washed each other.

"I am definitely installing a multi-nozzle system into this bathroom the very first moment we're back in the civilized space," he commented as he gently rubbed shampoo into the back of her scalp.

She snorted. "That's only because you want to role-play a handyman meeting a hot next-door neighbor," she teased, and then she squealed as he momentarily switched the water to cold.

"Asshole," she laughed, turning and punching him on the chest, and then they kissed gently once more, melting into each other.

As much as their lovemaking two nights before was filled with lust, that much was this shower gentle and sensual. They took care of each other there, re-familiarizing themselves with the other's body as they took turns soaping the other one up, feeling the muscles, the old battle scars, and massaging the tightened knots.

There was no foreplay when they finally went to bed that night. She just sank herself down onto him, engulfing his firm member in her warm and tight embrace, and they spent time just like that, her arms around his shoulders, his one arm against her hip and the other on the small of her back, and her hips undulating against him slowly, sensually, for what seemed like an eternity, while they shared small kisses and long dances of the tips of their tongues against each other.

The release they shared that night was not the explosive and overwhelming lighting storm, but a gentle swell and jolt that sent the tingly tide of pleasure and content through their whole bodies.

Yes, they would do this whenever they could – both Jaina and Marcus realized that with certainty. They had no idea when they would be able to do it next. Even the easiest-looking mission could be the death of someone, and this mission was anything but. So, yes, they would take every moment together that they could, and to hell with anyone thinking otherwise.

..

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!**


	11. Chapter 11 - Calm Before the Storm

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

 _ **Thanks to all the reviewers! Your encouragement and assistance is basically the thing that keeps us, writers, going.**_

 ** _This chapter had originally been written as one logical part of subsequent chapter, but it would be WAY too big to post it as one huge chapter. I had not choice but to separate those into two._**

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on: 27.12.2016.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

 **Chapter 11 – Calm Before the Storm**

The next morning, the fully rested and rejuvenated Marcus and Jaina stood side by side on the captain's command platform in CIC and watched the holographic representation of the Theseus system, with Feros extracted and enlarged on a separate projection.

"So, how do you want to do this?" she asked.

Marcus examined the planned flight path on the general system projection.

"We'll go in silent," he replied after a moment. "We should make it a standard protocol: always go full stealth as soon as we're out of FTL."

"Reduce the risk of sudden attack or ambush," she agreed with a nod. "We should talk to Adams in engineering to see if it might overstrain the stealth system, though. He mentioned there were some limitations with blue-shifted emissions."

"That's what he said?" Marcus queried as he looked at her over his shoulder, to what she hummed in affirmative. "Could be that the frequency is too high for the IES system to catch the blue-shifted emissions for some reason, but I'm not that much of an expert. I'll have a word with him on the matter."

"What would that mean for us?" she asked, nodding toward the strategic map.

He sighed. "Well, Saren's ultimate goal in this is Feros, but since Theseus is not a relay system, he could enter it from any one of these possible directions, so stalking him in outer regions of Theseus is non-feasible."

"That's assuming we get there before he does," Jaina cautioned. "Saren knows that the Council has the data he tried to kill Tali for. He'll expedite his plans."

He inclined his head. "I can't argue with that; that's what I'd do." He spent a couple of moments in silence. "I think it'd be best if we were to head directly to Feros," he said at last. "If Saren is already there, we devise an insertion strategy; if not, we set up. Stay low key. Wait for him to show up, to leave an opening. No sudden assault. If he comes, then the presence of that super-dreadnought of his is guaranteed, and I'm not eager to explore the potential of its armament."

"If he's already there, then he will have a significant number of forces with him," she pointed out. "It would be possible to ascertain the location of the Cipher based on the concentration of his troops. An insertion would be preferable. The Normandy could perform a combat drop with the Mako."

Marcus nodded, licking the inside of his cheek as he thought on the matter. "The Mako insertion means that Normandy will be exposed to the enemy, though."

"Maybe, but I doubt they could target us automatically," she said. "The VI-s and guided missiles need emissions, and we have none. We will be an anomaly. They'll hesitate. It will give us time to deploy ground strike team."

"Yeah, but once that happens, they'll immediately flag the Normandy as a bogey," he said as he straightened out and leaned back against the railing with his hands crossed. "Stealth or not, they'd be able to track it with any average CCD system. They'd pursue the ship, which means we won't be able to control the skies." He trailed off for a moment, thinking. "Not unless we have someone here who has the initiative to guide the ship into best tactical positions to perform air support while evading enemy, that is."

Jaina mulled it over as she looked off to the side with a concentrated frown. She spoke quietly so only he could hear:

"That could be a problem. What you're talking about is tactical aerial combat with frigates – that's not something your average pilots are trained in. It requires heavy tactical situational awareness, and no matter what the PR likes to say, it _will_ put too much load on a single pilot. I mean – Joker's the best, but he can't exert that fine control the ship while forming battle tactics at the same time. Nobody can. He'd need someone to guide him through the tactics."

"You're not thinking Pressly, are you?" Marcus asked just as quietly.

"No. No way," she replied firmly enough. "He's a space navigator; he does not have the skills needed for navigating a pilot through atmospheric combat conditions."

"I figured as much," Marcus replied. "That is why I need you here."

"Me?"

"We were trained to operate atmospheric fighter planes during N training, Jaina," he said. "And you were the best damn pilot of us all. You know how to navigate in low atmo better than anyone, and that's what Joker needs – a tactical aerial combat navigator. While he flies, you'd be the one to direct the tactics he'd use."

She was silent for a moment. "You're right," she said somberly.

"Well, we'll see how situation develops first," he said. "But I'm pretty sure you will be far more useful here than down there."

She nodded. "I'll do the necessary preparations."

"Alright; I'll go down to engineering to talk to Adams. We'll see what the capacities of our stealth drive are if we are to plan this appropriately. If we can instantly switch it on or off, it'll be a great advantage in open combat."

Marcus left the CIC and quickly descended down to the cargo hold. He first moved to the Mako, and saw Garrus crouching on one knee on the vehicle's roof, and working on the terminal that was hooked to the Mako's main gun.

"What's the situation with our combat vehicle?" he asked the turian.

"Commander," Garrus greeted him with a nod. "The Mako is fully operational and ready to go at any moment. The main gun could do with a bit more precision calibration, but it's nothing big."

"What's the bell curve?" Marcus asked.

"The expected value is at minus point-zero-one on the horizontal, with a standard deviation of point-zero-five," Garrus provided.

"That's negligible," Marcus replied with a nod.

"Well, it's just that us turians like precision," Garrus coughed.

"Hey, you won't get any complaint from me, Garrus," Marcus replied. "We're a few more hours away from Feros. Just make sure the Mako is ready the moment we leave FTL."

"Understood, Commander," he replied. "And, Commander?"

Marcus stopped and turned back toward the turian. Garrus jumped down from the roof of the Mako and stood face to face with him.

"I want to thank you for bringing me along with you on the hunt for Saren," Garrus said. "Working with a Spectre has so far proven to be much better than working in the C-Sec."

"How so?" Marcus asked.

"Well," Garrus grinned and tapped the side of the Mako. "Working with all of these nice toys right here beats having to deal with bureaucrats and the red tape I had to deal with in C-Sec; that's for one. I still cannot believe the rules they tried to saddle me with."

Marcus snorted a laugh. "Last time I checked, this was a military vessel, and anything military is rules-galore," he said. "You can't tell me this'd be better than what you had in the C-Sec?"

Garrus laughed.

"I've served in the army, Shepard; I know darn well what rules are and why they're there. But there are sane rules, and there are insane rules. Military rules exist for the purpose of smooth functioning of the military – they exist to serve the military itself. But C-Sec works for civilians, and as such, all of its rules are made for the purpose of serving some very powerful civilians.

"Bottom line: the amount of red tape one has to deal with is beyond maddening. The more critical the case was, the more these little issues and annoying bureaucratic nuances would start to appear that would hamper my case just by existing. It started feeling as though all the C-Sec rules were made for the purpose of _protecting_ the ones that should be brought to law."

"Hell, Garrus," Marcus laughed. "Every sovereign state does that, and you won't ever be able to change it. Laws are there to ensure order, true, but the kind of order the powerful few behind that rule the state behind the curtains prefer it to be. Humans, for instance, have had dozens of different ideologies through the ages, many of them polar opposites. We have shaped the law to suit those ideologies – never mind the fact that it _always_ allowed the privileged few to oppress the many. It still is so today, except that it is wrapped in silken gloves, and has a tender touch to lull you while they rob your pockets."

Garrus chuckled, shaking his head as he look down to the floor. "Yeah, that certainly is how it felt being stonewalled on every step. Never thought of it like that, though." He then raised his gaze to meet Marcus's, looking somber. "But now that you've said it, it sure makes sense when you explain it like that. It was frustrating. Helpless. I needed to watch a lot of bad people walk away because of the rules. Maybe this time with a few good people around and no rules to bind us, I can finally make a difference to the good."

Marcus looked pensive for a moment. "That's a slippery slope right there," he said, leveling a warning look at Garrus.

"… I know," Garrus said. "But maybe I won't have to be the one to make the tough choice… yet."

Marcus nodded.

"You might need to, sooner rather than later," Marcus said. "That's how this operation will be like. No going around it. But I assure you we will make a difference, even if we do what needs to be done."

Garrus nodded somberly.

"I understand, Commander. Thank you," he said, before he glanced back to the Mako. "If that'd be all, I should return to my work."

"Carry on," Marcus said and moved off.

He entered the engineering bay, and was greeted with the whooshing sound of the mass effect wave that traveled down the drive system. He cast a gaze over the engineering, taking note of the busy crew working various sections, before Engineer Adams greeted him.

"Nice of you to drop by, Commander," he said. "I was thinking of seeing you about that quarian girl, Tali'Zorah."

Marcus looked to the far side, noticing Tali who stood in front of an open panel in the wall, and worked something with her omni-tool with the systems that were inside.

"Is she giving us trouble with her tinkering?" Marcus asked with a serious tone.

"What?" Adams frowned in confusion, before his eyebrows shot up in surprise. "No! That's not what I meant for it to sound like. No; what I wanted to say is that that girl's amazing! I wish my guys were half as smart as she is! Give her a month onboard, and she'll know more about our engines than I do."

"Huh," Marcus spoke in mild surprise, then smirked. "Didn't expect a chief engineer to admit it so freely."

"Hey, I'm not vain, Commander," Adams replied. "I know how to recognize a good thing when it appears in front of me. This girl is a god-send."

Marcus looked back toward where Tali was working.

"So she's actually helping with the ship?" he asked.

Adams chuckled. "You can say that again," he said. "She's got a real knack for technology, that one. I figure you've brought her along for her expertise with the Geth, but she's been helping way more than that."

"Really?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You have no idea," Adams said. "She's already presented us with several methods in which we can seriously increase our performance. Turns out that quarians are experts when it comes to repurposing existing tech to do something else as an addition to what it already does – a kind of assistance to other systems – and our ship just benefited from it."

"What are we talking about here?" Marcus asked.

"Well, you know how energy always goes through a state of conversion when used by one mechanism? Once used and converted, that energy needs to go somewhere. Usually, it is lost. It turns out, though that quarians are experts at repurposing that energy. Now, we basically harness and recycle all of that energy that the various systems have already used. Our powergrid capacity and power efficiency have skyrocketed!"

"Hmm… interesting," Marcus said genuinely. "Got any practical examples for me?"

"Take your pick," Adams said. "She's already optimized our stealth system and added fifteen minutes of stealth time. And let me tell you – that's a lot! She has also worked out a way to reroute the static charge through our hull, and to make it slowly dissipate through the massive surface area while we're still at FTL. It's not a lot, mind you, but she has effectively added additional five hours of FTL flight before the need for discharge, and the method does not put any strain on our sensors. Background systems are experiencing reduced energy waste by a quarter!"

"That's… impressive," Marcus said with genuine surprise. "It plays right into our hand for what we're planning to do when we reach Theseus system. Which is what I wanted to talk to you about, in any case."

"Whatever you need, Commander," Adams nodded.

"I intended to go full stealth the moment we exit FTL in Theseus," he said. "Can the stealth drive hide us while we exit the FTL?"

"No," Adams stated with shake his head. "The FTL entrance and exit make us blue-shift our emissions. IES cannot catch those frequencies."

Marcus rumbled deep in his throat. "Figures. I'd need options for remaining stealthy as we exit FTL."

"Well, we'd be good if we were to exit FTL behind an outer planet or near sun's corona, so that it hides any energy bursts of our exit," he said. "The latter is definitely easier. The sun's corona is huge, and it burns at millions of degrees, so any FTL burst would remain hidden by huge solar emissions. Pressly and Joker could navigate the ship through the maneuver easily. We're good for any sub-FTL system flight after that. We'd have just over two hours of active flight before needing to exit stealth to empty our heat sinks, which is more than enough to crisscross any system twice over."

"And if we were to drift in?"

"Assuming you want to drift in at near-light speed, but not above it?" Adams queried, to what Marcus just nodded. "That would put significantly less strain on the heat sinks, for sure. With full engine-controlled flight, you'd be left with about one hour of stealth once you reached Feros. With drift-in, you'd be good for an additional forty five minutes on top of that."

Marcus did the math in his head, before nodding.

"Thanks, Adams, that's all I needed to know," he said, then looked toward where Tali was engrossed in her work. "I'll be seeing you later, eh?"

"Any time, Commander," Adams replied, and the two separated, each going his own way.

Marcus moved off toward Tali, scrutinizing her work. She seemed to be greatly absorbed in whatever she was doing – lost in her own world of engineering mysteries and technical tinkering. People told him before he tended to do that as well. It gave certain perspective seeing it from the outside.

"Hey there, Tali!" he called.

She jumped up, startled, and whipped around.

"Oh! Hey there, Shepard!" she chirped. "You startled me there."

"Just wanted to make sure you have everything you need," he said.

"Oh, don't worry about me, I carry everything I need with the suit," she replied. "And the accommodations are luxurious. I must thank you for purchasing all that wonderful dextro food."

"You don't need to give unnecessary praise, Tali, you won't offend anyone. This is just a military ship, and it has few amenities."

"It might seem that way to you, but to a quarian, this ship's a yacht," she stated. "And it's even more than that – it's a work of engineering art! Just look at this mass effect core!"

She walked up to the railing and looked up at the blue swirl of suspended eezo.

"This core is equivalent to a one from a cruiser," she said. "I cannot believe that you managed to place a mass effect core of this size into a ship this small. This truly is a work of incredible engineering. I didn't know Alliance's ships were this advanced."

"Not all the ships are like this," Marcus replied. "The Normandy's as special as it gets. It was made together with turians, uses top-of-the line tech, highest grade materials and the best crew the Alliance has."

"Precisely my point, Shepard," Tali spoke in her lilting accent. "For thousands of years, the technology of modern Galactic civilizations followed the same trend, same doctrine, same proven style. Ships today are not at all different than the ships that were around centuries ago. Their capabilities are the same, their materials are the same. I know, because quarians still have many warships that fought in the Geth War, and our ships were even more advanced back then than even turian or asari. And then humans came with their carriers and medigel, and started turning the old staid views of other species upside down."

"Three hundred years old ships, huh?" Marcus commented, shaking his head. "How the heck is it possible that those ships are not falling apart at the seams? Every material has its fatigue age, and for ships its usually no more than fifty years – a hundred if you're careful."

"That's because us, quarians, don't have a capitalistic system as the rest of the Galaxy has," she replied simply. "We can't afford it. The entire Galaxy revolves around money and consumers that… well - consume. But us, quarians, we cannot produce new things like you can. We need to use things sparingly, to conserve and recycle _everything_. It wasn't until Geth Uprising that we learned just how _long_ can a ship last if you're careful with it."

"Damn," Marcus muttered. "I can't believe those ships still work."

"They work, but that's just because we keep repairing and upgrading them with whatever we can find," Tali said with a sadness creeping up clearly into her voice. "A month ago I was patching a makeshift fuel line into a converted tug ship in the flotilla. Now, I'm sitting aboard what is likely the most advanced vessel in the Citadel Space. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you have given me this opportunity."

"I'm just glad to have someone as skilled as you here," Marcus said sincerely. "Not to sound like we're using you, but I can't deny that our ship has benefited greatly from your expertise. Adams tells me you've fit right in among his engineering crew."

"They have been beyond friendly," Tali exclaimed animatedly. "Quarians never felt welcomed anywhere. They always shun us, but this place is amazing. Your people are amazing!"

"It's good to know things run as smoothly as you say," Marcus said. "It's important to me that _all_ of my crew is genuinely friendly towards each other. Space isn't friendly, nor is it forgiving. It is only by having everyone feeling welcome on my ship that we can ensure we come on top of everything. There is no other way; I'm glad you're feeling happy here."

Tali shifted on her feet, looking left and right and wringing her hands.

"I… thank you, Shepard," she said, and Marcus noticed a hitching break in her voice.

"Hey, don't mention it," he said with a smile. He started to turn, when he suddenly remembered something. "Listen, Tali, Jaina and I would love to know more about quarians in general. Would you be willing to share?"

"Of… Of course!" she exclaimed. "Most people don't care about quarians to ask. I'd be happy to tell you everything about my people that you'd like to know."

"Well, that makes three of us, because I know how Jaina would be interested," Marcus replied, smiling. "How about after this mission to Feros is over and if it turns out we have a little bit of breathing room? In the meantime, you prepare in whatever way it is that you need."

"Of course, Shepard," she stated readily. "See you later!"

Marcus exited the engineering bay in short order, and came upon Wrex, who had just exited the elevator – probably from where he was getting some chow on the crew deck. Without stopping, he motioned for Wrex to follow him, and walked up to the workbench that he had used the previous day to modify and upgrade weapons, with Wrex now trudging a few steps behind him.

A large object covered with a large piece of cloth took up the entirety of that separate workbench. Marcus grabbed the cloth and pulled it down, revealing a massive piece of weaponry, unlike anything seen or used in the modern-day battlefields.

Wrex looked at it in silence for a few moments, before he turned one eye to Marcus.

"What is _that_?" he asked slowly as he pointed his upturned palm at it, his posture painting great interest.

"That's the weapon you will be using while you work with us," Marcus replied.

"Doesn't look like any weapon I've ever seen," the krogan rumbled as he took a step closer and examined the weapon more closely. "Looks like an anti-materiel rifle on steroids with all these extra parts added to it… And what is this armored belt that connects it to this boxy radiator-looking thing?"

"For one, it's no longer a sniper rifle," Marcus said. "It's a machine gun. A heavy machine gun."

He pointed along the additional parts that ran under and over the length of the bore and surrounded it on both sides, giving it a massive, muscular look.

"This whole system that surrounds the bore is actually a heat sink" he said. "This part that works as the undercarriage is the man part. The liquid coolant flows through it, and goes through the pipes through the armored belt you've seen – a pair of pipes, for exchanging hot and cold liquid – and it goes into the radiator," he pointed to the large metallic box. "It is basically a heat-exchange system. The radiator has active power and cooling turbines within. It is necessary to have one; this weapon produces so much heat that conventional heat sinks aren't gonna cut it."

Wrex had kept one of his eyes on Marcus as he spoke, then looked back at the weapon when he had finished.

"So, how does this work?" he asked. "How do I carry this gear on me?"

"That is just the reason why I called you: to see how it sits on your back, and if we need to make some adjustments. Turn around."

Wrex shrugged, then turned his back to him. Marcus moved the massive weapon across the workbench, and grabbed the radiator. He raised it and carefully pressed it onto Wrex's back. There was a hiss and the clamping sound as the several rails extended and hooked the device onto Wrex's armor with a mix of magnetic and suction clamps.

"How does that feel?" Marcus asked.

Wrex hopped in place and twisted his torso around as he experimented with the new weight.

"Not too different than when I would carry flamethrower tanks," Wrex nodded.

"Good. I've made it so that there's still plenty of room on your lower back for the shotgun. Now, grab the weapon itself."

Wrex reached out and hefted the massive weapon into his arms. There was an unmistakable interest painted in his whole demeanor, and a small smile formed on his large lips.

"Shit, Shepard," he said. "This really is one heavy weapon. He-he-hee!"

"Any problems with carrying it?" Marcus asked.

"No," Wrex replied as he aimed it down. "No problems at all. Hell… it has been ages since I held a mighty-looking weapon like this. Us krogan used the ones almost as big as this back during the Wars. It was a standard-sized weapon for us… before we were banned from having weapons and armor. I've held a defunct one in my hands when I was still on Tuchanka all those centuries ago. Not as big as this one, but…"

There was a moment of silence as Wrex was engrossed in his new weapon.

"What's it like on Tuchanka?" Marcus asked, and immediately noticed Wrex scowl.

"I don't know; I haven't been there since I left four hundred years ago, "he said annoyedly. "It was a pile of radioactive rubble then, and I'm sure it's a pile of radioactive rubble now. I've left that ball of dirt and junk, and I'm never going back."

Marcus took careful note of the tone in which Wrex spoke. It was not anger; it was bitterness. So he played dumb.

"Sounds almost as if someone put a bounty to your head," he said. "You have some enemies down there?"

"There's no bounty," Wrex said. "And yeah, I have enemies. Every krogan has enemies. Except my enemy is the entire krogan race. I tried helping, and got a knife in the back for it. I gave up on them long ago."

Marcus distracted him on purpose:

"See that switch on the side of the rifle?" he asked, making Wrex refocus his attention to the weapon. "Press it."

Wrex did so, and a gentle hum started emanating from the radiator backpack as the turbines spun and pumped air through the panels.

"The radiator works fine," Marcus said as he measured readings with his omni-tool. "Coolant flow optimal. That button is the safety brake, remember that. It's rigged so you cannot fire the weapon unless the coolant flow is achieved."

He took a breath of pause, then spoke again:

"So, someone tried to fuck you up real good back then on Tuchanka? Yet I see you're still here – living, breathing, and kicking. Sounds like someone was either incompetent or they bit off more than they could chew."

Wrex looked at him sideways with his red eye. "What's that? Some poor attempt at tryin to fluff my ego, Shepard?"

Marcus stopped adjusting the backpack and looked at Wrex. "Do I look like a man that'd bother fluffing other people's ego?!" he deadpanned, an edge creeping into his voice.

"Hmm…" Wrex rumbled deep in his throat, then looked back forward. "That's good to know, because I don't need you to tell me my own worth. Me surviving sure wasn't for the lack of trying on their part. Hell, they were some of the finest warriors that were left around after the Rebellions. So yeah… no incompetence there – that's for sure. It was a bunch of hard-ass veterans against a one-hundred-and-twenty year old kid. And I showed them, alright."

"So, if they're dead, why are you here?"

"Because the krogan on Tuchanka are fucking idiots," Wrex growled. "They'd sooner kill each other just for the heck of it. If I'm about to put my head in a grinder, I'll have them pay me credits for it. So I got the hell outta there. I've been a mercenary ever since, and it has worked out for me just fine."

"Hmm," Marcus continued adjusting Wrex's radiator backpack. "Got any interesting stories to tell?"

Wrex gave him an annoyed look. "Well, there was this one time that turians released the genophage on my entire species," he said acidly. "That was fun."

Marcus looked at him in disappointment.

"What're you doing? What is that?" he asked, shaking his head. "At one point you claim you couldn't care less about the krogan, and a minute later you rant about the genophage? Mind explaining the confused human here, because I really don't fucking get it," he finished dryly.

Wrex glared dangerously at Marcus with one eye as his breathing accelerated. He panted audibly like a large bull.

"Whatever!" the big krogan barked in the end, shifting on his feet in annoyance. "I purely doubt you'd understand, and I don't feel like wasting my time talking. Now, can we focus some more on this weapon? Do I need to carry it in my arms all the time, or can it be packed?"

Marcus sighed contemplatively for half a second, before he nodded, shifting gears back to the matter at hand.

"Just mount it on your back like you would a heavy weapon, straight down the middle," he said. "The radiators are separated down the middle to allow the weapon to be hooked between them."

Wrex did so, and Marcus nodded satisfactorily when the weapon retracted its bore and stock into a compact form and settled firmly on top of the radiator system

"How does that feel now?" Marcus asked.

"I need to lean forward a bit to keep the balance," Wrex said. "Nothing big, though. So, when can I shoot from it?"

"We'll reach Feros in a few hours. I guess there might be some chance there. You can keep the weapon now. I've done all the optimizations that I can here. By the way, here's a targeting program for your helmet HUD." He activated his omni-tool and transferred the program to Wrex. "Nothing fancy, just a basic one for general direction and dispersal, optimized for that weapon. It's not exactly a sniper anymore."

"As if that wasn't clear enough from its looks," Wrex noted. "I sure am eager to see whether its killing power is as impressive as its size."

"That makes two of us," Marcus replied as he started moving toward the elevator. "See ya later, Wrex!"

"Shepard," Wrex nodded and moved to where his cot was at the corner of the cargo hold.

Marcus climbed up to the crew deck, and as he turned around toward his cabin, he passed Ashley who had been sitting at the lunch table and talked to one of the crewmembers. When she saw him, she quickly excused herself from her company and stood up to move alongside him.

"Sir," she spoke up in greeting.

"What can I do for you, Ash?" he asked casually with an inviting nod.

"I was wondering if I could take two minutes of your time?" she asked hopefully.

"I keep an open door policy," he said. "If you have any issues, by all means, talk to me – We'll keep it off the record." He nodded toward the doors to his quarters. "Come on, we can talk over there."

She followed him into his cabin, and declined the seat when he offered it.

"No, thanks, Skipper, I'm fine," she replied.

He leaned against the desk and crossed his arms over his chest. "Alright, Ash, talk to me."

She sighed, obviously steeling herself.

"It's about the aliens, sir," she said. "I know things are different now on the Normandy, especially since it's a vessel outside Alliance's and under a Spectre's command, but… should men like Vakarian and Wrex, or even Tali'Zorah, have full access to the ship?"

Marcus frowned, narrowing his eyes. "What's your concern?" he asked.

"This is the most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy, sir," she said. "Nobody else has a ship like this, and it gives us an edge over them. What if the aliens steal intel, or erase some vital data or even sabotage the ship?"

Marcus felt disappointment.

"You mean – what if someone gave them an order or that they themselves had decided to do the things you just said for the purpose of advancing their own species?" he asked to clarify.

"Well – yeah, of course," Ashley said in an 'obviously' manner, a nervous smile dancing on her lips. "I mean, it'd be perfectly natural for the members of their own species to be more important to them than humans are. They might be our allies now, but I don't think that we should put everything in them staying allies forever just because of some tradition."

Marcus sucked air in through his teeth as he looked up and scratched his five-o-clock shadow pensively for a moment, before he looked to the floor, waving a finger at her.

"You know, Ash, I like the way you're thinking; being honest, but also having a healthy dose of cynicism can keep you alive. But in this case, you're not thinking things through," he finished reproachfully.

A small smile that had formed on her lips died down.

"You see, you forget that this ship was built in cooperation with the turians," Marcus continued. "That means that the turian government already has the layout of this ship inside and out in detail. That, however, definitely doesn't mean that they could remotely disable this ship, or anything even close to that. It goes far more than simply knowing the layout of the ship for you to actually do something about it. Our half of the engineering team would have made sure that all systems are secure. As for Wrex or Tali – when are the krogan or quarians going to start building new ships? If they were to start – by some magic – it'd be decades before they reach Normandy's level, by which moment we'd have something far more advanced.

"If they _sell_ the information about Normandy's tech to a third party that would want to build this ship, then that third party would still need to dish out billions of credits to build a ship this expensive. If, however, you think they want to sell info about some exploitable weakness for some pirate or terrorist to hijack this ship, then you forget that that's what the trained crew is here for to prevent.

"As for your fear of system sabotage, well, you forget that every console is protected by a security password for each crewmember, as well as a bio scan. Nobody unauthorized can access it. If they were to try, they'd need to perform a long, arduous hack that would last hours, and would have been picked up by the system if it was remote. Don't forget how tough military hardware and software is."

Ashley deflated, exhaling, yet her eyes were searching around for straws to grasp.

"I guess I understand what you're saying, Skipper," she said, "but Tali and Garrus are still allowed physical access to Engineering and the Mako to tamper with. What if they sabotage the ship and our IFV like that?"

"And – what? Vent themselves or blow themselves up as well?" Marcus demanded pointedly with a scrunched frown. "Garrus will be riding in that Mako through the battle with us, Chief – or have you forgotten why I invited him on this ship?"

Ashley was silent, looking uncomfortable at the situation as she cast her eyes down to the ground. Marcus studied her for one long moment before he spoke again.

"This goes deeper than mere soldier's concern for the ship," he stated as he kept his stern, piercing gaze on her. "You hold deep dislike for aliens in general."

Ashley went rigid.

"No, sir, it's not that," she said hurriedly. "It's just that I don't trust any alien. I think that us, humans, should stick together and learn to rely only on ourselves."

Marcus scrutinized her for a moment as he gently scraped his teeth against each other, and then released the breath he was holding as he started speaking.

"You know, Chief, there's a difference between what a government does, and what a man does," he said. "If there was no government, no Council, no politics, no nothing – except you and this one alien needing to trust each other in order to survive – what would you have done?"

Ashley laced her fingers in front of her midriff, thinking on it for a moment.

"Well, I suppose that we'd… find a way to coexist, I suppose," she said. "I mean if there was nobody else, just us… if there was nobody from the outside to force their politics onto us, then I think that… yeah… we would have worked through our differences. Maybe we'd be friends, even," she finished slowly.

Marcus let that sink in for a moment, and then he asked:

"And do you think there's any politics going on here?"

"Well… there's the Council, and –"

"Let me rephrase that!" he interrupted her firmly. "Do you think there'll be any politics allowed on a vessel which is fully under the command of a human _Spectre_ with full military background?!"

Ashley's eyes widened the slightest bit, and a ghost of a smile worked its way in the corners of her lips.

"No, sir!" she said firmly. "I don't think there will be."

He nodded. "Good. Keep that in mind once we reach Feros."

Ashley smiled, nodding. "I will, sir," she said. "I'll trust you to keep everything in line. Now, if you don't' mind, I should get to my duties."

"One more thing," Marcus called with a cautionary raise of his finger. "What you said that aliens will care more for their own species – that's true. It would be insulting them to think otherwise, it is as it should be, and that is _okay_. And that doesn't mean that Tali, and Garrus, and Wrex, and Liara are not 'okay' as people either. I want you to think about that, Chief; I want you to think _real_ carefully, because those people's good will is the thing that will be watching your back out there. Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir," Ashley replied somberly. "I will try to work toward that, sir."

"Good. I'll be seeing you then, Chief," he said with a nod, and escorted her out of his cabin.

He stood in front of his cabin's door, watching Ashley walking off toward the elevator, before he checked the time on his omni-tool. There was still several hours before they were due to reach Theseus. He cast a glance across the dual lounge and mess hall area, before he noticed Kaidan sitting at one of the lounge tables, going through some intel on a datapad as he enjoyed a cup of coffee. A thought came to him then, that having another impartial opinion on the crew might be good. Kaidan did strike him as careful and calculating man.

"Lieutenant," Marcus spoke up as he approached the desk where the lieutenant sat, to what Kaidan raised his head. "Got a minute?"

"What can I do for you, sir?" Kaidan asked as he placed the datapad down.

"I was hoping I'd get your honest opinion on the team we've gathered for this mission," Marcus said conversationally as he sat down and leaned forward with his elbows against the desk and stapling his fingers in front of him. "I need to see where the crew's at."

"Tapping for potential issues, huh," Kaidan said perceptively. "Yeah, I can understand that; small ship and few people having worked with aliens before."

"Have you noticed the ship's operational crew having any issues with that?"

"Well, Navigator Pressly has voiced his reservations," Kaidan said slowly. "He does not like aliens in general, but I'm pretty sure it's because of the First Contact War. I think his father fought there. He's the 'old guard', still remembering how it was."

"You think it might lead to problems with his performance?" Marcus asked.

"With _Pressly_?" Kaidan intoned, smirking. "No way. He likes to grumble a bit, but he's an Alliance officer, through-and-through. He's gonna do his duty without question, to the best of his abilities."

"Good to hear. Anybody else?"

"Not really, Commander," Kaidan said, thinking on it. "Everyone else is pretty much alright. I even overheard some engineers that passed by earlier commenting on how much they appreciate Tali being around in particular."

Marcus nodded. "And what about our ground teams?"

"Well, Miller's team is pretty solid," Kaidan said. "They're all N2-s, and they were handpicked by Captain Anderson. I know some of them; they're _very_ reliable."

"And the specialists we've recruited?" Marcus asked.

"Who do you want to start with?"

Marcus spread his hands with a shrug.

"Let's start with Wrex, Garrus and Tali," he said.

Kaidan seemed to think on it for a moment, then spoke:

"To tell you the truth, I wouldn't know what to think about Wrex, sir. He keeps mostly to himself, but he's a canny one; you can see that from a mile away. Not sure about his intentions. The way I figure it, money is what matters most with such people, but I'm not an expert.

"Garrus is okay, I guess. I figure since he's law enforcement, he holds himself to a higher standard. Not sure how it is with turians in the military, though; they might have some different views on things, see. I… did have some experiences with the turians before I enlisted that weren't exactly roses and rainbows, if you know what I'm saying, but I'm not the kind of man to judge others based on previous experiences. What I'm saying is that I'd just wait and see how it goes with Garrus."

"You're not having any issues with him – or Wrex?" Marcus asked.

"None, truth be told," he said. "I understand your reasoning for bringing them here, and I agree – we do need experts in various fields. Our lack of experience shouldn't be the factor that decides if we trust or mistrust someone."

Marcus nodded, prompting him to go on.

"As for the quarian girl, she actually seems to be a brave one," Kaidan continued. "Hell, it takes a lot of courage to leave your family on your own and go roam the Galaxy. This Pilgrimage seems like a cruel custom to me, but I'm not the one to judge; not like I know anything about it, anyway. Like I said, the scuttlebutt says the engineering crew has taken to her quite well. There will be no problems there, I reckon."

"And what about Liara?" Marcus asked.

"Doctor T'Soni?" Kaidan asked. "She seems nice enough – polite, smart, and seems like a sweet girl… easy on the eyes, too – assuming one likes the bookish sort."

Marcus smiled and motioned toward him with his chin. "Any intentions there, LT?"

"None, sir, actually," he replied with genuine disinterest. "Just aesthetic appreciation."

"I'm not saying anything, LT," Marcus raised his hands. "She's not Alliance, so if you want to go for her, you won't be hearing anything from me."

"Nah, it's not that, it's just that I prefer more… adventurous women," he said.

"Alright," Marcus nodded, then stood up. "I won't be taking more of your time. Thanks for the input, Kaidan. I'll see you later."

"Aye-aye, sir."

Marcus walked off toward the CIC stairwell, thinking carefully on the psycho-social state of his people. Good, capable people, all of them. Still, a lot of rough edges. A lot of baggage with each and every one of them. From blatant things such as Ashley's xenophobia and Wrex's violent history, to something old and partially healed with Liara and Kaidan. It was there. He could see it. He just didn't know what it was in each and every case.

He needed these people. There might be some others out there that could be better than them, true, but these people had solidity to them that he hadn't encountered in a long time. So, he would work with them, help them, even out the edges. Uncover the old scars so that he could re-bandage them properly and help them heal.

He just hoped that his and Jaina's touch would be enough. Not just because of Feros, but because if how things seemed to be progressing, this... quest... would take a lot of time; time for things to either go good or bad. And time would only tell.


	12. Chapter 12 - The Battle of Feros - Pt I

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

 _ **Sorry for the bit of a wait for the new chapter. But, hey, it was the New Year, and I'm on vacation till the 10**_ _ **th**_ _ **of January, so I partied hard for a few days. Felt like the cumulative hangover wanted to kill me when that was done, though…**_

 _ **Anyway, thanks to all the reviewers! As per**_ _ **MidnightDusk2104's**_ _ **advice, I've begun using Grammarly as an assist tool to proof my chapters, though not in absolute capacity. I'll also use it to proof and edit the previous chapters in the following days. If you're the type to pay attention to grammar and have done so with the previous chapters, then be so kind and tell me whether it bore fruit.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 7.1.2017.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

 **Chapter 12 – The Battle of Feros – Pt. I**

The Normandy jumped out of the FTL with the lensing effect of its mass effect curving the backdrop of the distant stars and glided smoothly through the void of deep space.

" _Primary jump sequence complete, Commander_ ," Joker reported. " _We have overshot Theseus system by 100000 AU-s, as intended; we're on the far side of the star from Feros_."

Jaina was standing on the command platform, clad in full battle gear even though she would be staying there for the foreseeable length of the mission, her eyes riveted to the three-dimensional tactical display in front of her.

The view was anchored to the close-up 3D tactical render of the Normandy as it flew through the system, its status depicted on several holographic gadgets and status bars that hovered in an unobtrusive HUD around it – shields, power reserves, weapon capacitors, armor integrity, mass effect, life support, among others.

She reached out and rotated the camera view with her hands, panning it to and fro as she examined the strategic overview and readings of the Theseus system that surrounded the representation of their ship.

"Bring us about, Joker, directly toward the star," Jaina commanded. "Engage FTL when ready, and proceed with the second stage."

" _Aye-aye, ma'am_ ," he replied.

The view gently started shifting as the Normandy changed course, and Jaina motioned with her hands through the air, rotating the view how she liked it. The ship aligned itself carefully toward the star, taking a few moments to steady the course and movement as much as possible. Then, there was a slight jolt and a sense of vertigo as the FTL drive engaged. Jaina watched the tactical display how the ship raced toward the inner system.

Navigator Pressly was at his post on the central CIC console desk, monitoring the systems carefully.

"The transverse aligned," he spoke. "Drift negligible. Reaching destination in… three, two, one, mark!"

The ship jolted just as Pressly marked the final moment. There was a sense of baited breath as everyone waited to hear the warning klaxons screaming about critical proximity to the star's corona.

"We are steady at oh-point-two AU-s from the sun," Pressly spoke calmly with a nod. "The sun's glare would have masked any emissions from the FTL exit."

"Should I bring out my sunscreen lotion now, Commander?" Joker asked over the comm with a slight tinge of sarcasm in his voice. "Cause it sure looks pretty sunny out here."

"Don't worry, Joker, we're not sticking around," Jaina replied. "Bring up the stealth systems online. Helm to starboard; take us in a broad arc out toward Feros.

"Assuming vector 2.15-127.3-0, initiate five-second burn at minus 97% mass effect," Pressly relayed to Joker, waited until the maneuver was performed, then nodded. "Ascending node at point-zero-one percent, periapsis stable."

"I want all passive sensors at maximum as soon as we clear the area of the sun, and I want them directed toward the planet," Jaina directed. "I want to see what is going on there."

"Ma'am, we're not picking up the transmission signal from the planet," one of the operators reported from her workstation. "Elevated broadband static noise on all channels."

"Sweep passive receivers over all frequencies," Jaina ordered. "Correlate with the signals we had picked up from Eden Prime, and the bands Tali'Zorah has provided."

She raised her finger to her ear and spoke: "Marcus, you better come here, I think Geth are already in the system."

"Ma'am, I've got a match," the operator spoke. "Clear signal isolated at frequency 3-14 delta, running it through software."

"Belay that!" Jaina snapped sharply. "The Geth are capable of above-average hacking. Their signals might have Trojans inside. I want scans ran only with isolated processors off-grid."

" _Captain's on the bridge!_ " a stand-at-guard crewman called out as Marcus stepped through the doors, clad in full battle gear.

"What's the situation?" he asked as he stood off to the left side of the command post and observed the tactical situation with his arms folded across his chest.

"The colony is jammed, Geth signal confirmed," she reported. "If we isolate their signal protocols, we can piggy-back our communication through it. It would give the ground team a few minutes of communication before they change frequency."

"Enough to assess the situation and ascertain the plan of action once we're down," he nodded, then tapped his own comms. "Shepard to the ground team: assemble in the cargo bay, over. Jaina, you control the situation from here," he said, then moved off toward the cockpit.

"Understood," she replied, then turned her attention back toward the tac-screen and magnified the display of the Feros and its moons. She debated the possibilities, then spoke:

"Course correction: target goal – the moon Orcan's dark side. Take us at point-five light speed."

"New course assumed," came the response. "Acceleration constant. Achieving trajectory in five, four, three…"

"Shut down all engines, assume drift," she ordered.

There was a sudden sensation that shifted through the ship's framework as the minute, barely perceptible thrum ceased.

"All engines offline and on standby," came the report.

"Ma'am, we're detecting engine signature remains of increased ship traffic around Feros. Lag: six light minutes."

Jaina activated the overlay and a series of vectors appeared, consistent with what a group of ships would leave behind.

"Detecting Geth signal source," a crewmember reported. "Multiple sources around the planet."

Jaina watched as several dots appeared on the tac display. "Thermals and visuals, correlate search parameters."

"Thermal readings confirmed," the crewman reported.

"Detecting changes in the visual spectrum, but too far off for clear resolution," the other operator added.

Jaina just nodded, her eyes riveted to the tactical situation.

"Course correction," she declared. "Maneuvering thrusters only. I want us to peek from behind that moon toward the planet after we have reached it."

"Calculating," Pressly replied. "New parameters prepared. Joker?"

" _Got it_ ," the pilot reported.

The Normandy slowly drifted into the moon's gravity well, and glided through a parabolic path over its dark side, until Feros's full sphere appeared from behind the moon's curve. The ship then swiveled, applying engine brakes and entering a hyper-altitude hover state above the moon aided by inverted mass effect field. All passive sensors opened up and began absorbing every shred of info they could catch from the planet and its surroundings.

Jaina's tac-display flared with new signals.

"Geth ships confirmed," came the report. "ten confirmed signatures: two cruiser-sized in orbit and _eight_ frigates in the atmo – all clustered in the zone of the Zhu's Hope colony – and I'm detecting an additional unknown dreadnought-sized signal in orbit."

"Jesus, that's a whole task group," Pressly muttered. "How are we supposed to deal with that?"

"We'll find a way," Jaina stated. "We're soldiers. We took an oath and we _will not_ just sit and watch a thousand people get slaughtered. Am I understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Pressly replied readily and firmly.

"Good," she said, then tapped the largest signal on the display, sending the ping to other systems. "Now – visuals, direct all lenses onto that signal, I want a render."

"Understood," the crewman replied. "CCD stable… I've got clear resolution. Displaying."

Jaina tapped the incoming notification, and the image appeared in front of her. The squid-like shape of the alien vessel was unmistakable. She tapped her earbud and spoke:

"Marc, we've got that super-dreadnought present in orbit."

" _I'm coming over_ ," he said and walked back into the CIC from the cockpit at a brisk pace.

He went around the central command section and climbed the command platform, standing right to the side of Jaina, and then examined the live cam feed of the enemy vessel that was in geosynchronous orbit.

"What's the situation groundside?" he demanded.

"Sending data now, Commander," crewman spoke.

Jaina modified the situation display, showing the disposition of enemy ships that were in the vicinity of Zhu's Hope. A multitude of smaller signals could be detected next to the colony, the myriad of them popping out right next to the larger signals of geth ships, marking the deployment of ground forces.

"We're late," Marcus growled.

"Not by much. The enemy forces' disposition is consistent with initial grouping and deployment," Jaina assessed as her eyes scanned the readings.

"Yeah, but they're all clustered on this one mega-tower," Marcus noticed as he circled it out with his forefinger. "What's the story with that?"

"Sir! Might be because of a pair of your standard colonial surface-to-air GARDIAN turrets I'm detecting on the other tower – that's where the colony proper is. The geth ships seem to be trying to keep beyond the turrets' angle of acquisition."

"That other tower is the local ExoGeni corporate headquarters, then," Jaina said.

"Well, they're as good as dead," Marcus said, then went silent for a moment. "I bet you a million bucks that that Cipher artifact Saren's looking for is somewhere in the residential area of the colony – that's the only reason all those geth frigates aren't blowing the mega-tower out of the sky right as we speak."

"No bet," Jaina said. "It's clear they're preparing to storm the colony. We have a small window of opportunity here."

"And we're gonna have to get down there, fast!" he said as he quickly moved to descend down the command platform and leave the CIC, issuing orders as he went. "Get us down there for a combat drop, Jaina. I'll take all of the ground forces we have available and assist the colony as much as I can. Estevez, Davis," he commanded the two marines on CIC guard duty, "you too – helmets on and join Miller's team!"

" _Yessir!_ " the two men reported readily, immediately storming out of the CIC and down toward the cargo hold.

"Jaina," Marcus said just as he was about to step out. "You distract their vessels however you can and keep them from pummeling us from the skies. I don't think that those two GARDIANs will be enough if they all decide to attack at once."

"Roger that," she replied, then started issuing orders just as he left the CIC. "All engines engage. Joker, take us on a direct course toward the planet. Pressly, get us the ground nav-data for a suitable combat drop."

"Aye-aye, ma'am," Pressly replied as the engines roared to life.

Jaina pressed a button on her console, and her voice echoed over the intercom:

"Shepard to all ship personnel: _battle stations_!"

Each crewmember tapped the designated command on their post, and the mechanical crash webbing unfolded, enveloping them snuggly in their seats. For Jaina, a mechanical arm rose up from the command platform's floor behind her and grabbed her around her armored waist and extended an ergonomic spinal support up her back, securing her snugly against any possible crash impacts while giving her full liberty of movement.

With the mechanical crash protector secure, Jaina tapped her earbud.

"Jaina to Adams – what do we know of geth ships' weapons systems?" she demanded from the Chief Engineer.

A moment later, the answer came:

" _Eden Prime data suggests standard coaxial guns, smaller broadside turrets, as well as guided missiles._ "

"What type of guidance?"

" _No specific data, but it doesn't really matter, Commander,_ " he reported. " _The IES stealth system can absorb any directed radar or ladar sweeps that missiles use, and they can't detect our heat emissions either. They can only detect us with CCD-type visual scanners, but guided missiles can't rely on those because they need a distance gauge which the visual detection can't accurately provide in combat condition._ "

"You're kidding!" Jaina called. "That's the best news I've heard this day so far. Jaina out."

She then switched comms:

"Marcus, Addams just assured me that the IES could help us a lot more in combat situation itself; we just might pull this off! What's the status of your ground forces?"

" _I've taken everyone not needed on the Normandy – the specialists, Miller's six-man team, as well as those two from the CIC_ – _sixteen in total._ "

"We might not be able to perform a soft-drop for those troopers on foot," she cautioned as she carefully scrutinized the tactical situation.

" _Our stealth system might confuse them long enough for us to perform a soft-drop, and then you start evasive,_ " Marcus replied. " _But in case it's not feasible, we have the Mako and a pair of Tritons that are certified for a combat drop. Miller and one of his men are already in the cockpits_."

"Understood," Jaina replied with a nod, then cut the comm. "I want to know what those ships in orbit are doing!" she called out to the CIC.

"Nothing, ma'am," the crewman replied. "They are maintaining formation."

"No additional engine, energy, or mass effect emissions," another one reported.

"Any sensors directed our way?"

"Nothing, ma'am," the sensors operator replied. "They are maintaining active omnidirectional radar and ladar sweeps, but our stealth system's absorbing the bounce-back right up, just as Chief Engineer reported."

"Good. Prepare to launch a cold probe on standby," Jaina ordered. "Set it to passive scans toward those ships and a narrowband transmission in our direction so it's not detected, and eject it on my mark."

"Probe set and ready," an ensign reported.

"Launch!"

"Probe away," the report came back. "Probe active and scanning."

"No change in enemy ship's behavior," another crewmember reported.

"Proceed right past them," Jaina ordered, and observed the tactical situation with baited breath.

The Normandy passed not five thousand kilometers off the alien superdreadnought's side, and not a peep or shift was detected from the enemies.

"Transitioning into the upper atmosphere in ten," Pressly called.

There was a slight shift in perceptive gravity as the ship started traversing the upper layers of the atmosphere.

"Stealth systems absorbing entry emissions with 98% estimated efficiency," a crewman reported.

 _So far so good_ , Jaina thought. Her full attention was riveted to the situational awareness.

"Pressly, transfer the ground tactical display and cloud coverage to me," she said, and a moment later, she had the relevant display in front of her. Her hands flew over it, twisting the view and assessing the approach relative to the enemy's location.

"Joker, I'm marking the approach and sending it to you," she said as she moved her hands over the display, marking the points of the flight path. "I want it done!"

There was a moment of silence before Joker acknowledged confidently, " _You got it, Commander!_ "

"Get us as low as possible, Joker," she cautioned.

" _Aye-aye, ma'am_ ," he replied.

The Normandy stormed down through the clouds and descended straight toward the layer of thick dust that permeated much of Feros. Just as the ship seemed that it was about to slice into the dust, Joker leveled her up and it glided between the skyscraper peaks.

"No indication of enemy detection," came a crewman's voice.

"Inbound to Zhu's Hope in thirty seconds," Pressly declared.

Jaina glanced to the 3D render of the approaching colony on the display. The twin mega-towers that the Zhu's hope was built on were by far the largest planet-based structures she had ever seen. Each towered at over four thousand meters of altitude with an eight hundred by five hundred meter base, connected with an equally broad skyway bridge. They were so huge that the rooftop itself held a pair of smaller, five hundred meter tall towers on either side. And it was here, on this rooftop, where Feros's naturally elevated atmospheric pressure was comfortable, that a large, sprawling colony established residence.

"Enemy frigates in sight," the operator called as the red marks appeared on the tac display.

"Are they looking at us?" Jaina demanded.

"Negative! They're not scanning us with any actives."

Jaina immediately tapped the intercom:

"Ground team, prep for the soft-drop!" she called.

The Normandy whooshed over the broad and spacious rooftop of one of the absolutely massive mega-towers, pitching its nose up and performing a powerful aerobraking with its wings as it entered into a hover above the colony, its cargo bay doors opening even before the ship was fully stationary.

The Mako surged out of the cargo hold at full throttle, launching into the empty air and activating its retro thrusters as it entered a controlled descent. The Triton mechs ran right after it, full speed, jumping off of the platform and dropping down like a ton of bricks, sending a mighty tremor through the solid ground. The remaining troopers jumped into the air right after Tritons, being caught by the ship's infantry descent mass effect field that dropped them quickly and harmlessly onto the ground.

Jaina glanced at the time: twelve seconds.

"Ma'am, the Geth ships are orienting our way," a crewmember called out. "They are performing directed sensor sweeps, but nothing else!"

"The IES is absorbing the bounce-back of their active scans; they must be detecting us only with their CCDs," another one reported.

"They are confused!" the electronic warfare specialist called out in sudden realization. "The geth are VI-s, they see us in visual, but nothing else – it'd confuse any VI!"

For half a heartbeat, there was an utter silence in the CIC.

"Joker!" Jaina called out over the comms, her voice a deadly edge of steel that sent chills down the crew's spines as she focused a death glare at the enemy's projections. "Strafe to port, prep for Viper assault on my mark!"

" _Aye-aye, Commander, strafe to port, preparing for Viper,_ " Joker reported professionally.

The ship spun around, orienting toward the enemies, strafing and swaying gently to the side like a serpent ready to strike as the geth frigates followed their movement as if confused and mesmerized.

"Ma'am," Pressly called in grim consternation, "There are _eight_ frigates in total down here. Eight! Not even a cruiser can handle that many alone."

"We don't need to handle them, we need to keep them off the ground team's backs," she said, her voice bearing a deadly edge that brooked no argument, and then called out over the comms:

"I am assuming direct control! Joker, it's you and me now. I'm marking priority targets – Bandit 1 through 8 and Waypoints 1 through 4. "

" _Receiving_."

"I want tone on all marked Bandits at all times," she commanded.

"Tone on all Bandits – confirmed," targeting station reported back, followed by a flat beeping sound of established weapons lock.

"Bandits still following and reducing distance," sensors reported.

" _Bandit-1 firmly in my aiming funnel,_ " Joker reported back. " _I got the tone and the reticle dead on in._ "

Jaina's deadly gaze turned predatory as her hand reached out and hovered above the haptic control that combined the IES and the heat sink venting switches.

"Joker. Viper," she called and pressed the button.

Instantly, the IES field went down like a light switch, flashing all of the stealth system's heat vents wide open, just as the engines roared at full power and the ship's main axial gun discharged its first salvo in a one-two-three combo.

The combined flare of the venting heat, the antiproton fuel combustion, and the EM discharge of the rapidly-firing main gun instantly overloaded the geth sensors that had been sweeping in high-sensitivity mode, completely crippling the geth ability to see a damn thing.

The first of the three rounds from the Normandy's main gun punched straight into the Bandit-1's shields, the second one ripped right through them, and the third one completely gutted it like a fish, bow-to-stern, blasting it right out of the sky.

Before any of the geth frigates managed to fully reset their sensors, the Normandy sped right through their formation at full throttle, the few blindly fired geth rounds scratching against its superior kinetic barriers as it passed, leaving no mark.

Jaina instantly flipped the IES switch back on, shutting off all of the heat vents and reactivating the stealth system, robbing the enemy of their ability to target them.

"Bandits 2-through-6 turning about. They're accelerating right after us!" the report came.

"Joker, evasive actions down the route I've marked for you," Jaina called. "Drag these fuckers away from the colony! Our boys and girls need breathing room."

" _Understood! Diving!"_ Joker called back as the ship spun hard around its axis, doing a reverse- dive at full speed toward the cloud cover as the rounds fired from enemy ships zoomed all around it.

"Assume bearing one-nineteen! That forest of skyscrapers fifteen klicks out – get us there!" Jaina commanded.

" _You got it!_ " Joker affirmed readily as he pushed the engines to its limits, using his maverick skills to veer and swerve the ship away from the geth frigates' firing lanes as the rounds zoomed around him.

"Ma'am, Bandits 7 and 8 are _**not**_ following! I repeat: they are _**not**_ following! The ships have remained stationary at the sides of each of the towers."

"They must be still discharging troops," Jaina assessed, clenching her teeth. "Nothing we can do about that now with these five on our tail."

"Missiles incoming," the crew member alerted, then added, "going wide – no lock!"

"Good! Joker, stop playing tag with those sons-of-bitches right out in the open and get us into that skyscraper forest NOW!"

The Normandy suddenly jerked under controls, leveling and going full throttle as it broke into hypersonic speeds, charging straight toward the skyscraper city.

" _Well, when you put it that way…_ " Joker's cheeky voice came through a moment later.

The ship stormed thunderously into the skyscraper forest, the sonic boom fracturing the ancient, crumbling facades into a swirl of debris, followed quickly by another group of thunderous booms as geth frigates stormed into the city right after Normandy.

The ship weaved through the dense groupings of tall buildings, banking left-and-right sharply as it made evasive maneuvers, repeatedly breaking the visual contact the geth had on it – the only manner in which the geth could track or target it – making their rounds strike nothing but ancient structures.

"Two geth ships going high," the sensors alerted. "They're going for the strike from above."

"Not this time," Jaina retorted, switching her tac display to targeting and taking direct control of the GARDIAN arrays from the automated VI.

The four rear-mounted GARDIAN array turrets spun upwards under Jaina's control, surging to power and discharging invisible rays of hyper-concentrated light straight into one of the high-flying geth frigates that were shooting down from above.

The lasers tore into the frigate's armor with impunity, forcing both of the frigates to bank hard before taking critical damage before they dove back into the relative protection of the skyscraper forest they were all flying through.

"That'll teach them," Jaina said, then, "Take over," she commanded one of the CIC operators as she flipped the GARDIAN control layout back to the broad tactical display. "If those ships try it again, you know what to do!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the operator reported readily from her seat as she assumed direct command over GARDIANS.

The chase continued, and the whole minutes ticking by as the Normandy played tag against the enemy vessels – an eternity in an aerial dogfight – keeping the enemy busy and as far away from the colony as they could. The battle conditions forced the geth to work all they were worth only so they could keep visual of it – the only manner in which they could track the stealth ship.

Jaina's steely calm gaze never veered off the tactical display and the over-the-top representation of the city Normandy weaved through, doing a million tactical calculations in a second on the comparative position of their ship toward the enemy, assessing the optimal direction, position, and timing for the perfect counterattack.

"Heads up!" She called suddenly as her hands flew over controls. "Geth losing visual in ten! Hard to port, make a bank around that mega-tower, then an MEA backflip and hover. Targeting – I want predictions to targeting solutions! Arm all Javelins!"

"Arm all Javelins – aye!"

"Targeting prediction established."

The Normandy banked hard, making geth lose the visual, and spun behind the massive Prothean mega-tower that dominated the forest of skyscrapers. Right on cue, Joker activated full Mass Effect Assistance, backflipping the ship and placing into a level hover.

He stopped breathing, his finger on the trigger as he followed the moving targeting reticle – the advanced VI predicting the incoming geth frigates' position from behind the massive skyscraper – as the two seconds head start they had over them ticked down.

Just as the final hundredth of a second dropped to zero, the whole geth frigate group burst at full speed past the mega-tower's edge, banking hard toward their position and straight into the Normandy's weapons envelope just as Joker pressed the trigger.

Sixteen javelin missiles burst out of their launch tubes in a machinegun-like barrage and flew in a swarm straight toward the four Bandits. The laser arrays of the geth ships surged to action, knocking the Javelins down, but the distance was short. Too short.

Eight of the Javelins punched through the laser curtain, slamming into two of the enemy frigates and detonating the powerful warp explosion crescendo. Each of the massive resonating mass effect fields ripped through everything in a hundred meter radius, twisting and breaking military-grade metals like they were wet tissues.

The combined warp blast effect launched a massive shockwave, striking all remaining ships including Normandy, knocking them all out of position and putting heavy pressure on their barriers. Alarms blared across the Normandy's CIC, and the ship's render on Jaina's command console showed a massive drop in shielding, with several symbols to the side flashing yellow.

"Shields down to 40%! Warp effect had a 15% barrier pierce-through," the crewmember barraged the report.

"So it peeled off the paint – ignore it," Jaina dismissed.

"Geth ships still active! Reorienting toward us!" another one called.

"Joker, full throttle – straight between them, then spiral up around the tower!" Jaina directed, and the ship instantly jerked forward, its powerful engines roaring at full power.

The two surviving geth ships swiveled from where the massive explosions had knocked them to, discharging their main cannons in rapid volleys without any hesitation. Five rounds struck the Normandy as it streaked by – three glancing blows and two direct hits – before it passed beyond the enemy ships' weapons envelope as it rushed between them.

"Shields down to 19%!" the crewmember called tensely. "Gaps in coverage forming!"

Jaina reached out and flipped the shielding switch. "Purging capacitors and recharging."

"Shields down! Ten seconds to recharge!" the crewman reported.

"Enemy ships separating! One of them is spiraling up the tower in opposite direction! " another one called.

"Smart bastards going for the intercept," Jaina muttered as she tracked the command HUD closely. "Don't let them hit us, Joker!"

" _Don't worry, I'm not the best pilot in the Galaxy for nothing!"_ Joker's called back through the coms. " _Watch this flying!_ "

The ships surged up in a spiral around the several kilometer tall mega-tower, Joker's wild maneuvers leaving the geth wanting as the myriad of wild shots from the three geth ships blazed all around the Normandy as they ascended toward the top.

"Joker! MEA backflip once more on my mark," she called, her hand hovering over IES controls as the rooftop's edge approached quickly.

The ship surged over the rooftop's edge, straightening out when Jaina called: "Mark!"

Joker pulled on the controls, making the Normandy's nose pitch up hard under the mass effect assistance, sending ripples of vapor as its engine nacelles cut violently into the air. The vessel flipped over its back, the momentum carrying its nose downward while the ship still soared up, and aimed it straight toward the geth that were seconds behind it going in for the kill on a defenseless ship.

For a split second, everyone's heart pushed into their throats, and in everyone's mind, time slowed. This was it. The ship's shields were off, and the geth were almost on top of them.

And then a blue symbol flashed on Jaina's console and pinged its activation loudly for all to hear.

"Shields back up!" an operator exclaimed victoriously.

Jaina clenched her teeth predatorily and slammed down on the stealth controls.

The IES went off and the heat vents split wide open, blasting the concentrated energy straight into the oncoming geth ships' detection sensors, oversaturating everything but the robust targeting systems of their main weapons that were this time fully active.

All that the enemy sensors could see was the bright ball of energy – the one that the geth programs interpreted as a this-time-failed repeated attempt from the Normandy to blind them – and they fired straight into the blazing target for a quick kill, not bothering with evasive maneuvers.

None of the geth could detect that the Normandy's shields were fully back up. None of them could see that the frigate had backflipped and that its main gun was now trained straight at them. None of them could see the moment the main gun fired the first shot.

"Eat this," Joker growled as he squeezed the trigger.

A rapid salvo of rounds exploded like a whiplash from the Normandy's maw, delivering a series of vicious punches straight into the closer geth ship, punching its barriers, armor and superstructure in a lethal combo.

As the momentum that still drove the Normandy upward drained out and the ship began to dive, the flaming wreckage of another geth ship was falling together with it, never to rise again.

"Full throttle, Joker, low dive," Jaina called as she controlled the ship's secondary systems.

" _I understand, and am able to,_ " Joker reported regally as he punched the throttle, then added, " _Is it just me, or is it getting a little hot in here?_ "

Jaina wiped her sweaty brow, noticing the increased heat.

The Normandy, meanwhile, accelerated straight toward the ground down the mega-tower's side, going supersonic within moments now that it was on the straight line and pulling up hard barely meters above the dust cloud.

Jaina's comms beeped with an incoming message.

" _This is Adams!_ " the voice came in her earbud. " _Commander, I can give you only ten more minutes of IES combat action at this rate – any more and it'll start to cook inside the ship!_ "

"Noted! This will be over in five!" Jaina declared as geth frigate rounds zoomed around the ship, striking into the surrounding Prothean sky towers and launching bursts of ancient stone and mortar in all directions. "Two ships aren't a match for us! We're finishing this! GARDIANs – target Bandit-5! Joker, Kollen maneuver – spin, now!"

The mass effect fields surged, lightening the vessel as it made a hard to port and an 180-degree turn toward the enemy as it opened all aerodynamic brakes. Lightened by the mass effect, the aerodynamic pressure stopped the ship within a dozen meters, rapidly closing the distance to the two charging geth frigates and entering the GARIDAN's lethal range.

Four of the forward-mounted GARDIAN arrays surged to action, the needle-thin laser rays digging deep into the Bandit-5.

An explosion rocked the section of the vessel where the laser beams sliced through its armor and struck at important systems. The vessel quickly disengaged, climbing high up in an attempt to leave the atmosphere as it trailed smoke. The other frigate engaged in covering fire from its own GARDIAN arrays as it followed its friend up, its shots meant only to prevent Normandy from targeting the crippled vessel with its main gun.

"They're falling back," an operator called.

"Bandits 7 and 8?" Jaina demanded.

"They never followed," one of the crewmen reported. "Both were parked on the sides of each of the Zhu's Hope mega-towers, but Bandit-6 is rising up right now while Bandit-7 is still there!"

"It looks like a full retreat," Pressly called.

"They don't get to retreat!" Jaina commanded. "After them, Joker! I want these sons of bitches down before they leave atmo!"

" _You got it, Commander!_ " Joker called as he stopped dodging the enemy's shots and steadied the ship toward the enemy for the main gun to fire.

Suddenly, a loud whizzing sound reverberated through the air as a massive red beam descended from the skies and carved a deep gouge through the ruins right next to the Normandy.

For the tiniest split of a second, Jaina's eyes widened, and her heart stopped beating.

" _DIVE_!" she screamed. "Into the dust cloud, _DIVE_!"

Joker scrambled to move the ship just as the second crimson beam of destruction gave them chase. He pitched the ship downward, straight into the dust, just as the beam sliced through the Prothean sky tower they were passing by, slicing the building's upper half off like a guillotine.

The humongous chunk of steel and concrete slid right down the sloping cut, descending straight down after the hapless ship that flew straight down into the dust cloud as more red beams descended all around them, trying to cut their path.

Flying on luck alone, Joker dove into the murky clouds, giving full throttle and leveled the ship up just before they hit the ruins beneath them. He gunned the engines, narrowly evading the falling building that crashed into the ground right behind them, fracturing into numerous chunks that were sent flying in all directions.

Swerving around the first few steel and concrete protrusions of the ancient ruins in the dust cloud, Joker stepped onto the brakes, managing to give it a full stop before it collided with the thick wall an ancient building.

Just as he did, the thick dust cloud that surrounded them lit up in red as a series of several prolonged red beams bombarded the location behind them where the building had crashed down, melting and carving everything and everywhere around it relentlessly. Some ancient volatile substance from the ruins got caught by the beam then, creating a massive explosive shockwave that blanketed the area. The Normandy barely held on with its mass effect field as the debris fell all around, peppering its barriers and straining their strength until finally everything seemed to settle down.

There was absolute silence throughout the ship. Nobody breathed for what seemed like an eternity. Despite the increased heat, everyone on the CIC had turned dead cold and frozen, all eyes looking slightly up, and all heads tucked deeply between the shoulders.

Jaina released a breath she had been holding for the past minute.

"I think we had gotten the big daddy's attention," she breathed. "And he seems to be angry."

There was a moment of silence.

"What now, Commander?" Pressly asked.

"We've sent a cold probe in orbit just for this eventuality," Jaina reminded him after a moment, then nodded toward the specialist. "Any readings?"

The specialist shook himself off, then tapped the screen and watched it for a few seconds.

"That dreadnought and its escorts are angling away from the planet and accelerating," he said. "Bandits 5, 6 and 7 are breaking atmosphere and assuming course toward the formation." A few more seconds passed. "The frigates have assumed formation –" he trailed off, and his shoulders slumped in relief. "They've jumped into FTL."

There was a collective sigh of relief.

"I guess the geth thought they had destroyed us with that explosion," Pressly said.

"Guess so," she agreed.

"Ma'am, Bandit-8 seems to have remained in Zhu's Hope!" the probe operator suddenly called, leaning forward toward the display. "It's… parked vertically against the side of the second mega-tower and I'm pretty sure I'm still seeing geth down there."

"Why did they stay behind?" Pressly wondered out loud.

"To pick up their armies, most likely," Jaina assumed, frowning and clenching her jaw. "Saren must've obtained the artifact he was after." She then nodded toward the operator. "What can you see of the colony?"

The operator shrugged, shaking his head. "They look fine and well from what the probe is seeing. There's next to no damages, and people are milling about."

"That's odd," Pressly commented. "That superdreadnought tried to destroy us with its weapons, but it left the colony standing. They could have leveled it to the ground easy! Why didn't they?"

Jaina growled deep in her throat as she ground her teeth, thinking. "We don't have enough hard data to answer that. We need to get out of here and regroup with our people," she said and activated the comm to the ground team. "Ground team, this is Normandy, do you copy?"

There was a crackle of garbled sounds. Jaina looked questioningly toward the comm specialist, who was working her console.

"The geth jamming signal is still present, ma'am," she said. "Try again."

"Normandy to the ground team: do you copy?" she repeated.

A garbled, but recognizable sound came from the other side.

"This is Shepard, glad to – _crackle_ – we could use – _crackle_ – the Geth ship – _static_ – ExoGeni building."

"We're on our way, ground team," Jaina replied. "I repeat: we are on our way! Joker, take us out of here and toward Zhu's Hope!"

" _With pleasure_ ," he replied. " _And may I say for the record that this ship is not designed to fly through the ruins of ancient cities? Gigantic concrete constructions tend to bypass our barriers and crush our armor. Just saying, you know_ …"

"Noted," Jaina said dryly as she reached to the IES controls and shut off the stealth system, allowing the ship to enter into a cooldown cycle. She then tapped the ship-wide intercom and spoke:

"This is Commander Jaina Shepard to all personnel: I am proud to declare that this ship has successfully battled against six enemy frigates completely on its own, of which it destroyed four, crippled one, forced the rest to retreat, and has dodged a highly-advanced superdreadnought's bombardment. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just had our _true_ baptism of fire. HOORAH!"

" _ **HOORAH!**_ " A cheer exploded amongst the crew as the ship slowly rose from the dust clouds, then turned and throttled toward the colony.


	13. Chapter 13 - The Battle of Feros - PtII

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

 _At the post-scriptum of this chapter, you'll find several notes on technical stuff that I use in this story. It concerns the methods of mass effect-based weapon caliber classificaion, as well as certain notes on vehicles._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 10.1.2017.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

 **Chapter 13 – The Battle of Feros – Pt. II**

 _.._

 _On approach to Feros; one minute before atmospheric entry;_

 _Normandy's cargo bay…_

 _.._

Marcus exited the elevator and walked with a quick step toward the assembled troops. The Mako loaded up with Marcus's specialist team, both of the Tritons, and the remaining squad of foot soldiers were all ready and waiting. Marcus donned his helmet, and after the microfiber actuators sealed it up with a suction hiss, he spoke through the comm link:

"Alright, everybody, listen up," he started as he walked toward the Mako. "We're going for this as if we're doing the combat drop, regardless of the outcome." He grabbed the upper edge of the Mako entrance hatch and swung himself inside with an easy swoop, then continued, "That means that the footmen squad might stay behind if it comes to pass. If not, you six are jumping right after us."

A light tremor of atmospheric entry spread through the ship.

"All teams, prepare," Marcus called as he sat down into the driver's seat and sealed the Mako.

"Mako team, ready," Garrus replied from his seat.

" _Triton team ready,_ " came Sergeant Miller's deep voicing Broad Australian accent.

" _Footmen team standing by_ ," replied the corporal who was in charge of the foot squad.

Marcus turned in his seat, taking stock of the ground team that was in the Mako with him. Wrex, Garrus, Ashley and Kaidan, all veterans of at least one previous military skirmish, were calm as ice and fully focused. Liara and Tali, though, were not quite.

"Hey," he called to them, putting up an 'older, kind brother' tone of voice that the Special Forces operatives were trained to use with civilians and kids. "Feeling ready for this? I know both of you've dealt with more than one life-threatening situation, but none of you were on the battlefield."

Liara and Tali shared a glance amongst each other before Tali seemed to gather courage and speak up:

"You do not need to worry about us, Commander," she said, putting up a firm tone.

Liara nodded in agreement. "She is right. We will do our part, whatever it takes."

"Well, that's good to hear, but I already know I won't worry about you," he replied easily. "Your job today will be to stay behind and do support if necessary. You are a biotic, and you are tech expert. So, you cover people with barriers from the cover, and you do hacking or quick field repair if needed."

No matter how imperceptive it was, he saw relief and growing confidence filling their chests as their shoulders relaxed and spines straightened out.

"Y-you got it!" Tali exclaimed in eager surprise as she hopped in her seat. "I have numerous hacking suites, micro repair bots, and I have packed extra amount of omni-gel!"

"And I am strong enough to maintain a broad-field barrier for minutes if needed," Liara added readily.

"Good; that much will most likely be your job," he said, nodding, then turned back forward, just a ship began atmospheric entry.

A light sense of vertigo spread the ship when the artificial gravity of the ship mixed with the natural planet's one. A sense of the ship leveling up followed, and a general ship notification ping came next.

" _Ground team, prep for soft-drop!_ " Jaina's voice sounded over the intercom.

"You heard her people," Marcus called over the comm as he revved up the Mako's engines.

Pings of readiness from the other teams chimed in his HUD, and Marcus focused on the cargo bay hatch in front of him. The lights on either side of the exit burned a glaring red as the ramp began to descend. The thunderous roar of air filled the cargo bay, the punishing punch of the air currents mitigated by the deflective mass effect barrier that stretched across the exit area.

The mega-towers of Zhu's Hope rose in front of them. The bursts of gunfire were flashing all over and in between the collection of the massive ancient structures, the hailstorm of bullets flying in all directions could be seen, and the muffled explosions growing louder by the second as they neared.

The lights on the sides of exit ramp turned yellow as the Normandy decelerated. With the handbrake still on, Marcus gave full throttle, making the vehicle tremble angrily as he kept the clutch tethering on that brink of release, his hand ready on the handbrake release.

The green light flared, and the handbrake went down, the Mako jerking forward with a full throttle of its six-wheel drive. A sense of weightlessness enveloped all the occupants as the vehicle stormed downward before Marcus kick-started the descent thrusters.

The armored vehicle landed with a bouncing jolt straight in the middle of the huge and spacious plateau of the skyscraper that was the home of the colony, the two Tritons dropping down with a powerful tremor right after it, and the remaining foot soldiers quickly dropping down on descent mass effect fields.

"Drop successful!" Garrus declared from the main gun's controls. "Activating adaptive camo!"

"No hostiles and no civvies in the area," Alenko reported from the sensors.

"All forces – advance toward the defensive perimeter," Marcus commanded over the comms, throttling up and pushing on toward the front lines as the Mako's adaptive camo system scanned the surrounding area and shifted from its default white into a mix of dirty whites and grays.

The two Tritons advanced right after him with as much speed as they could, with the foot soldiers keeping up on the mechs' flanks with their weapons raised and ready.

Taking a final glance upward as he drove, Marcus saw the Normandy standing off against several geth frigates before he returned his focus on driving. He could do nothing about that, but he had Jaina up there; if there was anyone that could do something about those ships, it was her.

The Mako sped down the straight streets of the colony, banking left as he reached the end of it and advanced toward the area where he could see large clusters of people forming a defense perimeter.

"Frontlines dead ahead," Garrus reported from the main gun's scope. "Heavy firefight!"

He wasn't kidding. A few hundred defenders were spread out in the area in front of the pass that led into the broad ancient skyway, keeping to the cover of numerous concrete blocks, steel beams, and ancient structures as they fought the advancing enemy using whatever mismatched guns they had. Heavy raining of geth gunfire surged all around them from the direction of the skyway, the phasic rounds and plasma explosions blasting against the steel and concrete blocks that served as barricades, raising dust and ricochet sparks all over the place. The pair of armored vehicles that the defenders seemed to have had – an aging M29 Grizzly and a Mako of their own – was the only thing holding the synthetics at bay. The two vehicles were keeping behind massive walls of concrete, dancing back-and-forth as they peeked out only long enough to blindly send artillery shells enemy's way before the heavy AP plasma rounds sent them scurrying back into cover.

With a violent bank and drifting, Marcus rolled the Mako into a cover, shifting into neutral and popping the handbrake in one fluid motion.

"Ash, take the wheel!" he commanded as he jumped up from his seat and popped the hatch. "Garrus, you stay on the main guns. The rest of you with me!"

He jumped out of the vehicle, taking to one knee and grabbing his rifle as he waited for the rest of his team to exit the Mako. Glancing back, he saw the two huge Triton mechs stomping their way around the corner, with foot soldiers following close at hand, and lumbering as quickly as possible toward them.

"Reinforcements!" some of the defending people hollered in relief. "The Alliance is here!"

A series of sudden, thundering booms reverberated above them, giving everyone pause, and as Marcus looked up, he saw Normandy surging through the geth ship formation with one of the geth frigates already engulfed in flames and falling down toward Feros's surface. A swell of pride warmed his chest as he watched their ship dodge geth shots and storm off, no less than all five geth ships turning about, hot on its trail.

As he watched the ship his wife commanded dive down and out of sight, dodging a flurry of incoming geth ship rounds and fired missiles, though, an unpleasant sensation twisted his gut for one impossibly long second. It took all the inhumane willpower he possessed to bash it down.

 _Live!_ – he sent a thought, then shifted his piercing gaze across the perimeter, taking a heartbeat to assess the state of the combatants and the overall tactical situation.

The defenders were an odd bunch of mismatched people – that much was clear within a split second. Most of them wore ordinary worker clothes or civilian garb, with a few of the civilians sporting low-grade armor. A platoon of professional security forces seemed to be the one holding ground around the choke point, with militiamen throwing blind suppressive fire around and above cover.

He tapped his comms, broadcasting on all frequencies:

"This is Commander Shepard of the Alliance, here to help! Who's in charge?!"

The comms' crackled and a man's voice came shouting through:

" _This is Alex Stavros, in charge of the private security forces protecting the colony! I got thirty good men, but the rest are poorly equipped militia. I saw your ship! You arrived in the nick of time – those geth arrived a little over an hour ago and began the assault on this side of the skyway not thirty minutes after that. I'm already a couple dozen militiamen short, and we can barely stick our heads out. They're pressuring us_ _ **real bad**_ _!"_

"I'm on it, Stavros!" Marcus called back. "Give me two minutes to scout the field, and then my team will do what they can."

He cut the comm and hand-signaled for his people to hold ground, then stormed out toward the center of the defensive line where a huge horizontally-placed slab of concrete stood as an excellent impromptu cover at the very center of skyway before it.

Geth suppressive fire surged around him as he dodged the rounds and vaulted obstacles until he dropped into a kick-slide that landed him behind the cover. Glancing at his shield HUD, he noted that it hadn't dropped that much at all, but figured that to the unshielded militiamen, even one bullet was enough; and geth were making sure to keep the fire dense enough for just that.

Glancing over the top of the cover for one second, he assessed the situation before diving back down, managing to scout out everything they were working against.

A whole company-worth of geth soldiers was advancing their way under the cover of a platoon of four-legged armored walkers – four of which the Eden Prime reports had classified as smaller Armatures, with the fifth one at the lead being the gargantuan Colossus. The whole combined platoon of enemy troops had approached as close as one hundred meters, with all quad-walkers hiding behind the numerous concrete rubble that littered the skyway with only their small heads peeking out and sending plasma rounds the defender's way.

He glanced back around the defensive perimeter, scouting out the locations for his troops and began to issue tactical orders not a second later, calling out to his team:

"Listen up! Ash and Garrus – take that Mako into that hull down over there," he commanded, his suit's VI tracking the locations he was looking at and sending the arrow marker into the intended squadmate's HUD. "I want you to shoot at anything you see having a flashlight on that skyway! Miller – get those Tritons on the sides of the breech and pound at everything you see! I want suppressive fire from those machine guns and missiles to flush geth out of their cover! Liara, Kaidan – get behind those mechs and support them with barriers when they need to regenerate shields! Tali, with them! Stay low and hit them with every EWAR strike you have, and deploy those repair bots when needed. Wrex and footmen team – on me to the front! EXECUTE!"

" _YES, SIR!"_ came a loud roar, and the team jumped toward their designated locations.

They surged in all directions as one, the Mako revving up with a screech of armored tires as it repositioned, the Tritons lumbering at a quick pace with Liara, Kaidan, and Tali following right behind their protective bulk, and with Marcus, Wrex, and footmen surging forward toward the thickest of firefight.

The geth weapons turned on them immediately, sending a hailstorm of suppressive fire intended for a quick kill as Armatures and Colossus attempted heavy strikes against the Tritons.

It all broke futilely against the Normandy team's heavily augmented shields, and the professional soldiers and high-end specialists stormed into their designated positions with no shield so much as breaking.

For a second, the first thing that could be heard was the sound of the Triton's mighty machine guns spinning up. And then, the thunderous roar of the two massive 12.7-cal* weapons overwhelmed everything on the battlefield.

A hailstorm of heavy slugs tore into the advancing geth with impunity, stopping their advance head-on and giving the badly-needed seconds for the defenders to regroup. Just as the Tritons became the geth's main target, the Mako's main gun struck in the middle of their assault formations, followed quickly by the colonists' Mako and the old Grizzly joining in a blazing game of whack-a-geth.

The geth assault groups staggered under the sudden influx of decisive counter-suppression, dropping back behind their own cover, only to cause Miller and his wingman to switch weapons on their Tritons and discharge a pair of high-arcing missiles that slammed down straight into the hiding throng. The detonations ripped the groups apart in a shower of shrapnel and oil, knocking them out of their cover straight into the incoming hailstorm of bullets – bullets that exploded on impact.

As he fired his Mattock into the geth, Marcus became distinctly aware of the first surprised, and then overjoyed exclaim of the big krogan as his new massive machine gun began discharging fiery death into the geth lines. Virtually as powerful as another Triton's arm gun, the Devastator began wreaking havoc through the ranks of the synthetics, its explosive rounds tearing apart any geth that got flushed outta their cover together with Marcus's and Kaidan's advanced guns.

Seeing the shift in the flow of battle, Marcus quickly tapped the comms, sending new orders:

"Shepard to all armored vehicles: target their heavy walkers! Don't let them suppress the Tritons!"

With geth troopers heavily staggered and no longer the IFVs' worry, the three armored vehicles promptly followed orders and turned their full and undivided attention to the enemy armor. Switching their ammo from explosive to armor-piercing, the IFVs rolled out of their cover and promptly began to jointly focus-fire one Armature at a time, dropping three of them in quick succession before the remaining ones ducked behind their cover in the now-badly-needed attempt to recharge their shields and repair their armor.

Tali, though, never gave them the chance.

Sending out a group of small orb-drones, she channeled a series of powerful EWAR disruptive pulses that crippled the geth's ability to effectively perform a repair protocol, crippling their ability to provide artillery support to their troops that were now hitting a solid wall.

Within a minute, the entire flow of battle made an 180-shift as the emboldened and no-longer-suppressed human forces broke out of their covers and tore into the badly staggered geth.

The Tritons that had taken the brunt of holding the line onto their backs were joined with a joint suppressive fire from the foot soldiers' guns, hand grenade explosions, armored vehicles' shelling, and the increasing number of militiamen from whom the enemy's pressure was diverted, transforming into a solid storm of bullets and explosions that finally forced the now-decimated geth troops to act.

Like one, the entire half of geth battle line surged back into the set of cover further behind. A few moments passed before the entire second half surged back to join the first.

" _Shepard, they're performing a retreat,_ " Garrus called from his position on the Mako's guns. " _I've never seen anything this coordinated! I'm having trouble picking targets over here._ "

"Noted," Marcus said as he kept up a suppressive fire from his M96 into the retreating enemy until they disappeared behind numerous obstacles that were spread out across all of the skyway's length, leaving piles of mechanical corpses behind them strewn all across the field.

"Shepard to all troops: cease fire, cease fire!" Shepard ordered through the comms.

"Cease fire!" echoed from numerous distant mouths through the air, the frontlines promptly turning quiet save for the calls for regrouping and moans of the injured.

"Shepard to the specialist team: status report!"

A moment later, all of them pinged back, their statuses appearing as green outlines on his HUD: all fine, no injured.

"Miller, you and your squad keep watch over the skyway," Marcus spoke. "Send two men to man the Mako and shoot at anything that so much as pops a flashlight!"

" _Yes, sir!_ " the man replied, and Marcus saw two men promptly separate from the sergeant's squad and run and hop into the tank, with Ashley and Garrus leaving the vehicle a few moments later.

Marcus's eyes turned and swept over the people of his team that had gathered around him, and finally settled on Wrex. The huge krogan held a large brown cigar the size of a child's forelimb in his mouth and was lighting it with the heat of the massive machine gun's hot bore.

"Wrex?" Marcus drawled slowly. "The machine gun working alright?"

Wrex took a deep drag of his lit cigar, then chuckled, thick puffs of smoke billowing out of his large mouth in the rhythm of his laughter.

"Does it work?" the krogan repeated rhetorically as he pointed the gun upwards, taking the cigar out of his mouth and holding it between his fingers. "You bet your quad it works!" He then looked at the weapon. "I've never used a weapon this powerful before. I'm keeping it."

"What are you calling that one, Shepard?" Garrus asked.

"Devastator machine gun," he replied.

"Ha! It sure is," Wrex concurred heartily.

Marcus noticed two men approaching their group with a purpose to their step. One of them, a grizzled man with graying hair and an obvious veteran soldier, was clad in full armor and wearing complete battle gear, while the other one was a civilian with nothing but a pistol at his hip. Marcus removed his helmet and showed his face to the two men.

"Commander," the civilian greeted him. He sounded drained. "My name is Fai Dan. I'm the current Mayor of the Zhu's Hope Township. Thank you for coming to our rescue."

"And my name is Alex Stavros," the veteran soldier said, "former Alliance sergeant, in charge of the private security forces that protect this colony. Are you by any chance _that_ Commander Shepard everybody's heard about?"

Marcus simply nodded.

"Well, then, it's a damn good thing to know you're here," he said, then turned his head and nodded up toward the Tritons. "And I'm glad to see those, too! Their guns just mopped the floor with the geth; would've been a lot harder to deal with everything if you hadn't shown up."

"What's the situation here, Stavros?" Marcus asked.

"Not as bad as it could've been, I'll tell you that," he replied grimly. "The call came from the Alliance two days ago about an imminent attack. Good thing it came via the general broadcast frequency, so all of the Zhu's Hope heard it; otherwise, the ExoGeni would most likely just dismiss it right of the bat. Even then, they tried to."

"Are you serious?" Marcus asked with an edge in his voice.

"Wish I wasn't," Stavros replied grimly. "It's that bastard, Ethan Jeong, the Chief of Operations. A real prick, that one. I mean, the other scientists are good people, but this guy's your real corporate douche."

"Alright, where is he, then?"

Stavros barked a mirthless chuckle, then pointed toward the other mega-tower with his rifle.

"Over there, with the majority of scientists, and no less than a whole another platoon of security forces," he spat. "I've barely managed to convince him to post thirty of the forty-five men down here. The bastard wanted all of the security for himself. I pretty much doubt anyone is left alive up there. Those geth ships that I saw your ship drag away from us? They discharged a whole goddamn combined battalion into that other tower, and one whole damn frigate remained attached to the skyscraper's side like a bloody tick! It's projecting a jamming field, and we can't signal anyone off-world."

"Then that's our main target," Marcus spoke with finality before turning to Fai Dan. "You say you're the Mayor? What's the situation with the colonists?"

"Thankfully, good, Commander," the man replied. "We've managed to prepare thanks to the Alliance's warning. The non-combatants are unharmed, but many civilians took up arms… some of them didn't make it."

"How many people do you have here?" Marcus queried.

"Over 1200 civilians," the man replied, then paused. "Several dozens less, now."

"Yeah, other than my guys, barely a dozen of them had shielding units of any kind," Stavros said, nodding sideways to Fai Dan. "Geth had cashed in on it mercilessly."

"Figured as much with the assault methods the geth used," Marcus said before turning to Fai Dan. "Do you have all the facilities needed to provide relief and shelter for the non-combatants?"

"Fortunately, we do," he replied. "The main generator is working steadily, the water supply from the old Prothean aqueduct is stable, and there's a salarian trader who brought a lot of provisions with his ship a few weeks ago; we're not short on supplies for the moment. The only real problem is those geth."

"Yeah – fortunately, the synths didn't have the time to do any real damage or gain a foothold," Stavros added. "If your frigate wasn't here to engage those geth ships when it did, we'd be in much deeper shit right about now. Those ships were maneuvering toward the top of that side tower to discharge troops!"

"I thought you had GARDIAN turrets," Marcus said, frowning.

Stavros barked mirthlessly once more.

"Yeah – those turrets were wisely placed by ExoGeni's _"experts"_ in the middle of the colony. They didn't have the coverage of the other side of those two side towers. Geth were about to exploit that. If you hadn't shown up, we'd be having geth crawling all over the tower right about now, and we'd all be forced to deal with _that_ fiasco as well!"

Marcus nodded. "Very well," he said. "If the colony is as secure as you say, I'll organize my people, and we'll head toward the other Prothean tower across the skyway. That geth frigate will need to be taken care of."

"I'll help you plan your attack," Stavros offered. "I was there until yesterday; I know the layout."

Marcus looked to Fai Dan, and spoke, "Go take care of your people, Mr. Dan. The soldiers will take it from here."

"Of course, Commander," Fai Dan spoke, then walked away in a hurried, purposeful pace.

"Alright, Stavros," Marcus started when Fai Dan was out of earshot, "Tell me what I need to know."

"There's something seriously off about this colony, Commander - that's what you need to know," Stavros growled in a low and grimly serious voice.

Marcus blinked. "Come again?" This was not the report he was expecting.

"In the one day that my men and I have been here, we have noticed an odd behavior among the colonists," Stavros said.

"Elaborate," Marcus demanded.

"It's the little things, sir," the man said succinctly. "They are very evasive, very withdrawn and vague. Many of them have shown symptoms of sudden and severe headaches, conveniently whenever someone asks them of what might be the problem. At first, I thought it was just plain mistrust of armed people, but yesterday evening, we came upon a man in the lower tunnels when we were exterminating a pack of raging varren for the colonists. The man seemed to be in constant pain, and he kept talking about how he's trying to resist _it_ , and whenever he tried speaking of _'it'_ , he was riddled with even more pain.

"To put further suspicion, earlier in the day, when I endorsed for the scientists to move from the Headquarters to Zhu's Hope, that ExoGeni chief, Ethan Jeong, was very adamant against it. And I do mean _very_."

He took a step closer, and his wizened, grim eyes met Marcus's.

"Sir. I think that ExoGeni was doing some kind of experiments on these people here. And, personally, I don't think the experiment is fully under their control; otherwise, they would have terminated it and came here. Now, I've seen these things when I served. It's textbook behavioral indoctrination, just like batarian slave control chip implants, but this one might be something else. The colonists speak of the colony as if it's a real paradise, but my men and I are not as eager to stay here if you know what I'm saying. I was thinking we might be dealing with some kind of new hallucinogenic drug or maybe something biological in nature, so I had my men inject themselves with the standard Alliance Ferrodex-20 biochem suppressant just to be sure. I've no idea how much time it bought us, and frankly, sir, I'm not eager to find out."

Marcus met the man's grim look seriously, nodded once, and then looked around, noticing how many colonists were fighting as militia.

"Have the militiamen proven to be unreliable?"

"No, and that's the thing," Stavros said. "They actually fight ferociously. I've got more than two hundred armed civs, and thirty trained former soldiers and cops. The militiamen might not be skilled, but they sure have the heart. It's like they have something they want to protect _badly_."

" _Commander,_ " Sergeant Miller's voice came through the comm.

"I'm listening," Marcus replied.

" _The Geth seem to be preparing for another assault_ ," he said. " _I'm seeing multiple Armature-class walkers and a pair of Colossus-class leading 'em._ "

Marcus quickly waved his team toward the frontlines, the team quickly dropping whatever they were doing and quickly moving on top of the ramparts for a good look. Garrus was already higher than anyone on a nearby vantage point and was scoping the enemy out with his heavy sniper. Marcus hopped up to him and donned his plate-masked helmet, zooming in with his helm-integrated optics and seeing the myriad of geth in the distance forming up in a massive assault.

"What do you see?" Marcus asked the turian next to him.

"That looks like one hell of an assault pattern, Shepard," Garrus said grimly after a moment. "They move in perfect coordination, one line protecting another. No wasted movements. No sloppy soldiers." His mandibles fluttered slightly. "So… this is what an AI war machine looks like… We might be in trouble."

"Not necessarily," Tali spoke up from where she stood on the ramparts a few feet beneath them. When Marcus looked down at her questioningly, the girl continued: "Speaking simply, when there are many geth platforms near each other, their efficiency increases because they share data, and it's easier for them to compute. To put it even more simply: as you kill them, they will become less and less competent, because no matter how fast their adaptation might be, data will be lost mid-transfer as platforms get destroyed. They'll become sloppy, giving you holes in their defenses for you to exploit."

"Sounds promising," Marcus commented. "Any other helpful info?"

"Yes. Shoot the big ones first," she replied firmly. "They carry the most computing power needed for high-quality coordination."

"Hmm, makes sense," he said, then called out, "Alright people, listen up! Kaidan, Liara, I'll have you repeat the process from before – you two work with the Triton mechs in covering them with barriers when their shields meed recharge and use your biotics offensively only if the geth get close enough. Garrus, how do you feel about taking vantage here?"

Garrus gave him the look.

"Are you kidding? This place is perfect," he said. "I have good elevation, perfect angle, and a thick structural beam right here for cover."

"Good to hear. Now, that anti-materiel rifle is designed to work against lightly armored vehicles, so target heavier geth. Use it with impunity. Stavros, those side towers that support skyway cables – are they accessible?"

"Sure are – that's where some of my men are," the man replied. "Just head to that large entrance and take the stairs on the side."

Marcus nodded. "Wrex, you're going over there. Find a thick entrenchment, and tear their flanks apart!"

"With pleasure," Wrex growled readily, replacing his cigar between his teeth as he stood up and promptly jogging off.

"Tali, you're EWAR support. Throw whatever you have on those geth. Ashley, you're on the frontlines with me and the rest of Miller's men."

Shouts were going everywhere as people scrambled, seeking good entrenchment and building more cover. The tanks began taking shots toward geth armatures whose heads could be seen over the debris, but many of the shots missed the comparatively small protrusions.

But not the shots from Garrus; his rifle's superior distance and his superior skills made sure of it.

Each time a large Destroyer or a Juggernaut came in his sights, a single round of his powerful anti-materiel rifle would break through their shields and smash their heads apart like a sledgehammer. Each time one of the numerous Armatures came into his sights, three quick and heat sink oversaturating rounds were enough – each breaking their shields, armor, and superstructure in quick succession.

" _Thirty seconds estimate until they clear skyway debris,_ " Garrus called through comms as he measured distances through his scope.

Marcus watched through his visor zoom as armatures clambered over some of the obstacles as if they were arachnids, the firefight beginning to pick up as both sides began trading shots.

" _Ten seconds,_ " Garrus called out as the battle began to pick up.

"This is Shepard to all combatants: target the big ones first, whenever you can!" he ordered over the comms.

The army of geth finally passed the final set of obstacles that sheltered their advance, and everything started blazing. The geth started their charge with smaller shock troopers advancing in a coordinated fashion as they deployed their hexagonal defense shields. More massive geth Destroyers charged between them, rushing straight toward the defensive line as drones buzzed above in a harassing strafe runs as the Armatures slowly advanced, all of them led by the pair of massive Colossi.

They were met with a solid and emboldened hailstorm of gunfire, shells, grenades, missiles, concussive shots, and overloadingareal EMP blasts that dropped geth flyers in droves. The battle had begun.

* * *

 _(Thirty seconds earlier…)_

Wrex jogged up onto the third floor of the support tower that overlooked the skyway from its side. He looked around for a good machine gun point, his experienced eye immediately noticing a terrace with a couple of huge blocks of steel-and-concrete making for an effective crenellation. He trotted up to it, looking around for the best way to assume combat position when he suddenly noticed an upright L-shaped piece of broken concrete standing like a conveniently backed chair just in front of the crenel.

Wrex bent over and wiped a bit of dust from it, then sat down and looked upon the perfectly clear view he had at the approaching geth army.

As the first sporadic shots began to be exchanged between the opposing forces down below, he opened a canister that was attached to his flank and pulled out one of the pair of litter-sized cans of beer from the frosty interior. He popped it open, savoring the satisfying _pffft-click_ , and then, removing the cigar from his mouth, he brought the drink up to his mouth and took a long, satisfying:

"*S _sllluurrrrrrrrp, gulp*_ – Ahhh!" he rumbled in satisfaction as he watched the battle be joined in earnest.

"Haaah. This. Is Life," he declared contently, then put the beer can down, replaced the cigar in his mouth, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

" _ **BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR HUE, HUE-HUE, HUE-HUE-HUE-HEHEHEHEHEHEEE BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"**_

* * *

 _(Meanwhile, at the colony entrance…)_

Marcus nodded to himself as the storm of heavy, explosive machine gun bolts started tearing into the Geth flank from the direction of the tower to the side where Wrex had taken up point. His keen ears could clearly discern the raucous krogan laughter overpowering even the ringing noise of metal piercing metal.

He refocused his attention to keeping up with the short-to-medium bursts from his rifle toward the selected groups of enemies, letting the explosive force of his rounds splinter material and send shrapnel through the tightly packed groups of shock troopers. His experienced eyes picked up the state and the progress of the battleground in the corners of their vision, never needing to turn their full attention that way.

Throughout the din of bursts and explosions, the defenders were holding steady and true. The additional Mako and a pair of Triton mechs, all piloted by experienced soldiers, had proven to be a decisive factor, keeping the pressure away from the militia, and keeping the civilians' morale up. The river of geth was being steadily withered as the dead robotic bodies started piling up at the invisible barrier, getting scattered by a tank round every few seconds that sent them flying over the edges of the skyway.

" _Shepard,_ " Wrex called over the comms, " _I see a bunch of weird, pyjack-looking geth crawling on all fours on the underside of the skyway, and I don't have a clear shot! They're almost on top of you!_ "

Just as he finished, odd-looking geth soldiers started hopping up from below, jumping over the frontal ramparts and straight into their ranks.

The poorly trained militiamen immediately lost their cool.

The weapons turned in the direction that they shouldn't have, the men's faces switched from focus to masks of panic, the calmness turned to jolts of fear.

In a flash of a second, Marcus recognized a disaster in the making and clenched his teeth against the sudden flash of frustration as Akuze flashed in front of his eyes all over again. It was like seeing soldiers panicking as the Thresher Maw kept bursting from the ground straight in their midst. Panic, terror, hesitation; death. It all flashed as if he was there again.

And then, before the colonists managed to do something stupid, a flurry of blue auras began enveloping the hopping geth in quick succession, launching the mechs into the air and blasting them apart with a quick application of biotic combos.

Quickly glancing back to the person who he _**knew**_ had right then and there saved the entire defensive line, he saw Liara. Mighty biotic aura swirled around the young asari as she veritably _danced_ through the biotic combat stances like a flurry of fast-paced martial arts katas. Her lifts and singularities caught geth hoppers like a swirling maelstrom before her warps blasted them apart again, and again, and again, leaving only scrap metal to be had.

The panicking colonists quickly switched their line of fire, raising their guns and firing wildly at the levitating geth even as Tali began sending precision-strike tech attacks the enemy's way.

"Good work, Liara!" Marcus called through the comms so she could hear him. "Keep a lookout for more geth hoppers! Don't let them drop among militiamen!"

" _Understood!_ " the girl replied, her breath panting, but her tone calm and level.

Several more squads of hoppers continued in their attempts at assailing the defender's position immediately after, having even less success when Kaidan joined Liara in catching them with biotic fields while they were still in the middle of their hop.

The pair of geth Colossi was still fighting, however. The Armatures were mostly done for, but those two behemoths kept soaking up the tremendous amounts of damage while their massive main cannons kept ripping the defensive ramparts apart and knocking the hiding defenders away like they were rag dolls.

With geth foot soldiers broken, though, all firepower switched to the two massive, ten-meter tall constructs, concentrating the staggering amount of force their way. With Tali's relentless and continuous EWAR attacks, The Colossi took their first step back. Then another. And another.

And then, their shields burst.

Just like that, the moment they did, an anti-materiel round sliced straight into the weak point between the neck plates of one of the Colossi, sending the mech reeling as if it received a vicious punch the face, its flashlight head explode in a burst of electric sparks as it fell down like a giraffe.

" _Scratch one!_ " Garrus called out merrily.

All fire switched to the final Colossus as it and the remaining geth foot soldiers went into a to retreat, not letting it take a breather nor succor before its shields failed and the combined might of several IFVs, mechs, and heavy weapons took it down in short order.

As the remaining few dozen geth soldiers retreated down the skyway toward their base of operations in the second mega-tower, the battlefield turned quiet of guns' blazing once more.

Only a wild, elated cheer from the colonists filled the air.

Marcus stood up from his cover, taking a long look across the ramparts, feeling the old, nearly forgotten warmth spread through his chest.

He was seeing Elysium again.

People had survived. They were cheering. The few soldiers that he and Jaina had rallied. The police forces. But, most of all, the civilians. They were cheering. And Jaina's eyes that day… they were only for him.

 _Jaina._

His gaze quickly turned to the direction that the Normandy had disappeared to earlier in the day, trailed by a wolfpack of geth frigates, sensing a cold, twisting feeling fighting its way up his chest before he bashed it down once more. There was no room for that now.

The cold, calculated, ruthless soldier took over again, reaching his hand to his earbud and speaking:

"Shepard to Normandy forces: we need to cash in on this opportunity! We will advance against the enemy in the second mega-tower. Objective: destroy all geth forces, and destroy or disable the geth ship that's jamming the comms. Stavros, your men are to follow us and provide support."

" _Understood, Commander,_ " Stavros replied.

"Alright people, the formation is as follows: The Makos up front, the Tritons are taller so they're right behind them providing support from the outside. The infantry is staggered in between with heavy armor soldiers up front, and specialists in the back. The Grizzly stays put to defend the colony."

"Sir, what about the colonists?" Ashley asked.

"Do not worry about us, Commander," Fai Dan called out immediately through the rumble of the repositioning tanks. "We are well entrenched, and well-armed, despite everything, and there are more than two hundred of us. There is nothing that can attack us save from across that skyway."

"Alright, then, that settles it!" Marcus decided. "Move out, people!"

With Normandy's teams being mostly Alliance soldiers, and Stavros's private security forces being mostly former Alliance military, the advancing forces quickly established a firm and solid assault formation, and began their trek across the skyway, firing toward the enemy geth that could still be seen rapidly retreating. The enemy rounds kept wheezing about – both sniper and short burst fire pinging off of the obstacles, concrete and soldiers' shields, followed by occasional Colossus plasma blast, but the solid coordination of the professional soldiers made them quickly find their groove and efficiently dodge everything that the enemy was throwing their way.

The Makos, though, turned out to be a far greater hindrance to their quick progress than he had expected.

The infantry fighting vehicle was designed to be used as a fast and agile vehicle that could perform quick transports and assaults across various types of rough terrain. The problem was that the battle-scarred skyway they were traversing now was cluttered with debris, large concrete slabs, as well as anti-tank barricades that provided practically vertical wall-like obstacle. Geth Armatures had no problem with this; they could climb over it like insects. But it was a whole different story for a wheeled vehicle.

The Mako's springy suspension and unruly differential were making the vehicle beyond difficult to control. More than once, a vehicle almost crushed a nearby soldier when it swerved unexpectedly after scaling an obstacle, even causing one of the tanks' front wheels to go over the ledge. The vehicle's jump thrusters couldn't do much good because their use required a running start – something the Mako couldn't properly do in small spaces – and controlling the jump with thrusters alone was insanely difficult.

By the time they were halfway across the skyway, and when one Mako had to be biotically pulled back from where its front hanged over the ledge using combined might of Wrex, Liara, Kaidan, and him, Marcus had firmly decided that Mako needed to be replaced.

Just as they reached that halfway mark, from where the majority of the obstacles were cleared, a loud roar of ship engines made everyone stop in their tracks and jerk their heads toward the sound, witnessing a geth frigate ascending from below them and beginning to slowly climb up into the sky, completely ignoring the combined platoon that Marcus has been leading.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Kaidan yelled as everyone crouched low, impulsively aiming their guns toward the ascending frigate despite the fact that it wouldn't do any good.

"Must've been attached to the Zhu's Hope skyscraper, somewhere beneath the colony," Stavros said. "It must've been there all this time, ever since the fighting began. We'd have seen it otherwise."

"Did they intend to come up from beneath the colony?" Marcus asked sharply.

"We'd have heard them," Stavros replied. "The only way into the lower reaches of the colony is through the three-meter thick wall of pressed concrete – I've checked, and those cannot be easily broken. You've seen our ramparts; even a Colossus had trouble against them."

Marcus nodded and opened his mouth to order for the advance.

Before he managed to utter a single thing, though, a glaring red beam of destruction descended down from the skies in a flash, lancing into one of the distant Prothean mega-towers almost two dozen kilometers away. And then, another beam lashed down, slicing all the way through the mega-tower's upper half, decapitating it like a guillotine.

In a flash instant, a beacon's memory flashed in the back of Marcus's head, of red beams of death raining down from the skies that were fired by the unseen enemies that the Protheans were futilely firing their rifles at, and his head shot up toward the beam's source, realizing in an instant that this was Saren's superdreadnought.

And the realization, together with the sight of red beams, caused a memory to become loose – one of the numerous Prothean memories from the beacon – solidifying in front of his eyes into an image of the superdreadnought. It was there, in the images of fifty thousand years ago. It was there!

His head shot back toward the distant mega-tower as the rest of the friendly forces watched in shocked fascination the gigantic mega-tower's upper half sliding and falling down into the dust cloud, followed by a flurry of additional red beams blanketing the area until an explosion blasted up from the dust cloud.

And just like that, his brain added two and two and an ice-cold surge went through his body.

 _Jaina_.

He felt like someone delivered the most vicious punch of all time to his guts. A sense of a thousand needles piercing his skin spread across his face as the shock of realization grabbed him in a vice-like squeeze as his heart began to beat like crazy. Horror, helplessness, and rage swept through him like an exploding volcano; the darkest, most horrifying fear that he might have lost the one thing in his life that mattered. The one and only thing.

It took all of his inhuman willpower to pull himself out from the spiral of momentary despair his mind had fallen into.

Diamonds in his vision faded and the color returned to the world. The people around him started moving again from being frozen mid-motion when his mind went haywire. The sounds switched from muffled droning in slow motion to the sound of confused voices.

"What the hell was that?" Garrus asked.

Marcus swallowed the bile, forcing his lungs to take and push air.

"Saren's dreadnought," he replied slowly, his own voice hollow to him. He felt the ring and little finger of his left hand shaking uncontrollably. He couldn't stop them.

"What the hell was it shooting at?" Wrex rumbled slowly.

"Jesus Christ," Kaidan realized. "The Normandy!"

"Oh, no! Sir, we must contact them," Ashley spoke up hurriedly.

"If they're alive, they won't answer," Marcus said in a slow, grim voice, ignoring beads of cold sweat that formed on his skin. "Their position will be compromised if they send a signal."

There was a pregnant pause.

Marcus took a deep, deep breath, letting the shaky inhale purge his chest of dread and clenched his fist hard, forcing the shakes of his fingers to stop. The hellish training he had gone through to become the N7 took over. Whatever had happened over there, he'd finish the job. And then…

"We press on," he said, his voice being an edge of cold steel sending chills down troops' spines. "A geth frigate remains on the second mega-tower, picking up troops. Once they're done, they'll be mobile, and we'll be right in the open for their strafe run."

"If we make it in the first place," Kaidan said hurriedly, turning his head toward the skies. "That superdreadnought might target us any second!"

"If it wanted us dead, we'd be dead already," Wrex said grimly.

"So, why aren't we?" Stavros asked, looking at Wrex.

Marcus brusquely interrupted any further discussion:

"We'll have all the time in the world to discuss 'why-s' and 'what-ifs' later!" he growled, raising his rifle and moving with a purposeful step toward the enemy. "Right now, that other mega-tower waits. MOVE OUT!"

He didn't have the mental or emotional capacity to think about why that superdreadnought wasn't pummeling them down to oblivion. Not now. Not when he didn't know whether the woman he loved was alive or dead. As he brusquely continued issuing orders, all that his mind had the capacity for was the autopilot of the decade-long experience in battle and commanding.

"What's up with Commander?" Stavros asked Kaidan very quietly. "He looks off way more than just losing his ship."

"His wife was on the ship," he said just as quietly. "She was our XO. Long story. Not now, okay?"

Stavros just nodded mutely, when a sudden crackle of static went off in all of their earpieces with incoherent sounds of someone speaking on the other end of the link.

Marcus's head shot up and he jerked, turning his whole body sharply toward the distance where the alien dreadnought had targeted ground. The crackle repeated, but this time, there was the sound of woman's voice he'd recognize anytime:

"Normandy to th * _static_ * ound team: do * _static_ * copy?"

It was like a sun shined in the middle of his chest, sending the badly-needed warmth through his limbs.

"This is Shepard!" he replied immediately, feeling the tension leave his shoulders and the rock in his stomach turn to vapor. "You don't know how glad we are to hear from you, Normandy! We could use help against the Geth ship that's hooked on the side of the ExoGeni building."

"We're * _crackle_ * ground team," Jaina's voice spoke through the crackle. "* _crackle_ * on our way!"

He exhaled in relief and turned back to his people, his voice losing the grim, deathly edge it had had moments before.

"Alright, people, we have a break here!" he called out energetically. "The road in front of us is clear, without any obstacles – ergo, no cover! We're going to use the Normandy to do the heavy lifting, if possible."

" _Normandy to ground team, do you read me?_ " Jaina's voice sounded in his ears.

"We read you loud and clear, Normandy," Marcus replied. "Is it safe for you to be uncloaked?"

" _Saren's dreadnought has left, along with most of the geth ships, and we're detecting only a single frigate remaining near your position._ "

"Affirmative, Normandy! Eliminating that vessel will stop the jamming signal, but there are plenty of geth units on the ground. We could use the air support."

" _Roger that, ground team, we'll be there in twenty seconds. Mark the area you need cleared._ "

"I'm on it!" Garrus called as he peered over the nearby cover and used his rifle's targeting laser to point out the geth troop clusters.

Less than fifteen seconds later, the Normandy came into view from their right, the white wisps of air billowing around it as it moved at supersonic speeds.

"Protect your ears!" Marcus roared, and the troops obeyed, just in time as the sleek warship swooped above them in a thunderous boom, and multiple low-yield Wasp barrage missiles wreaked havoc among the geth troops hiding behind the distant cover of their own.

"All forces, GO, GO, GO!" Marcus roared. "Double time, men!"

The forces charged, the Mako tanks going forth with all the speed they could muster now that the road in front of them was clear of debris, with the foot soldiers and Triton mechs following after them with as much speed as they could.

The Normandy made a U-turn, double-timing back just as the final geth frigate disengaged from the building and flew up into the air, beginning to orient itself toward the ground forces in a preparation for a strafing run. The Systems Alliance warship swooped in from its five o'clock like a bird of prey, though, delivering a deadly salvo from its main gun that wrecked the geth frigate in short order, leaving nothing but a twisted heap of flaming metal in its long drop down to the planet's surface.

The remainder of geth forces had been quickly dispatched. With few of them surviving the failed assault, and many of them having already loaded into the now-destroyed remaining frigate, the forces that were left had quickly been overwhelmed by the combined might of Marcus's ground team.

" _Normandy to the ground team,_ " Jaina called from above, " _the geth ship is down. The long-range communications have been restored. I'm calling for the Alliance relief forces._ "

"Roger that, Normandy, we'll be checking this area of the colony out for any geth stragglers," Marcus replied, then turned toward Stavros. "Do you think there would be any survivors around here?"

"Hardly," the man replied as he looked around. "This building was nowhere near as defensible as Zhu's Hope. If it were me, I'd have scoured the building clean in order to secure it. But it's the geth we're talking about; they might be thinking along some different logic. I don't know."

As Stavros finished, Marcus heard a distinctly un-soldierly voice coming from the side. He looked to the far area and saw a civilian – a brunette woman dressed in scientist clothing – running up to a pair of soldiers at the perimeter's edge.

"Sir!" One of them called back. "We have one of the scientists here!"

Marcus and Stavros quickly trotted up to the girl.

"Miss Baynham!" Stavros called out in surprise as he ran up to her and gave her a supporting hand. "How did you survive, for cryin' out loud?!"

"Thank god you're here, Mr. Stavros," the girl spoke with relief. "I hid in the tunnels underneath. The geth never checked there, thank the heavens. Otherwise, I'd be dead."

"Well, thank your lucky stars they had different priorities then," Stavros said, then turned to Marcus. "This is Lizbeth Baynham, one of the researches," he said, then turned back to her. "Did any of the others survive, Liz?"

"I don't know," she said distraughtly as she covered her mouth to stop a sob, then continued, her face contorted in grief. "I got separated from the others when they fled. I stayed to back up the files… My mom… I… I don't know if anyone survived."

"Do you know where did they go to?"

"Yeah, um… Jeong ordered everyone to go to the Weigh Station when the geth appeared."

"A weigh station?" Marcus asked with a skeptical frown.

"No, _the_ Weigh Station – it's just something we decided to call the place," Stavros said.

"Alright, so where is it located?" Marcus queried.

"We've actually passed it on the way here," Stavros said quickly, elaborating. "Remember that large structure in the middle of the skyway? It seemed empty, but there's a large, nicely-tucked chamber in there under the main floor. Very hard to spot. They may have lived if they hid there."

Marcus gave him a skeptical look through his plated mask that somehow still carried easily through. It needn't be said among the veterans about how those chances were slim. Lizbeth caught the silent exchange apparently, as her face scrunched up in grief and she covered her mouth with her hand, pacing aimlessly.

"Damn it!" she choked as she shook her head through a sob. "Damn it all! It's all because of that goddamn Thorian! That bastard, Jeong!"

"Miss Baynham," Marcus called to her in a firm, yet a surprisingly compassionate tone of voice as he stepped up and looked down at the tiny slip of a girl. He knew exactly what she was going through; the memory of the sensation was still fresh in him, too. "Miss Baynham, I need to know what is going on here."

Lizbeth took a couple of deep, calming breaths, sniffed, then turned with a determined look on her tear-streaked face.

"Two months ago, a survey team was searching the lower reaches of the Zhu's Hope tower. They stumbled upon an alien organism there."

Realization could be see dawning on both Marcus's and Stavros's faces as they looked at each other in alarm.

"The strange behavior," Stavros said.

"Is it a virus?" Marcus asked as he looked back at her sharply, dreading the consequences.

"A plant," she replied. "A very old, very long-living, and very huge plant-based symbiotic life form. It's called the Thorian."

Marcus began remembering the lectures and training he received on all possible forms and types of extraterrestrial parasitic threats when he was becoming a soldier.

"Does it release toxins into the air?" he asked.

"Worse," Lizbeth replied acidly. "It releases mind controlling spores. Within a month of exposure, more than eighty percent of the colony was under its control. And do you know what happened, hmm? Instead of evacuating the colony, instead of protecting them, the ExoGeni decided to keep a lid on it; to see what would happen. To see how they could profit from it! They made them into fucking lab rats, and when I tried to appeal to their human senses when I sent a report to the main headquarters on Earth, the fuckers replied by placing me on probation and banning me from using comm gear! The prick, Jeong, told me I'd be first in line to be transferred to Zhu's Hope. And now I don't know if my mother is alive or dead because that bastard didn't want to relocate to a safe place, and all that because they made an experiment they couldn't control!"

She was screaming at the end, tears falling freely from her eyes, but there was ferocity in them that few people could match. Marcus could read her as an open book: the flow of words, the body language, the eyes… the girl was telling the brutal truth.

"You say it controls its victims?" he asked, deciding to make the girl focused on a task, rather than rake her brains on useless wallowing, no matter how justified.

"Uh… yeah," the girl said as she wiped her eyes, then sniffed. "It uses them to do its bidding; to protect it and provide for it."

Marcus frowned in concentration as he looked off to the side.

"Sounds like some primitive fungus on Earth that I've heard exist," he started, "but the way you make it sound this Thorian seems to be much more."

Lizbeth nodded. "True, the Thorian is nowhere near as primitive. Those fungi on earth you talked about control ants and slugs. This thing can control sapient creatures. It knows how. The Thorian itself is _very much_ sentient."

A grave tone was creeping into his voice as he asked, "How sentient are we talking about here?"

"As self-aware as you or me," she replied with finality. "Except that it's a plant, and its motives and ways of thinking are more alien than anything we had ever seen. I told you the Thorian was old. The samples we've picked up suggest that this particular specimen is far older than the Protheans themselves."

"That's… amazing," Liara muttered, her eyes wide.

"You could say that again," Lizbeth continued ruefully. "The creature has a nervous system analogue, centered in one single huge cluster, with many other smaller clusters spread throughout its neural network."

"Just how big is this thing?" Marcus asked.

"The brain or the network?" Lizbeth asked.

Garrus butted in, "Why do I get the feeling that we're not going to like either of those answers?"

"We don't know the size of its brain, but based on what it needs to control, we're talking bigger than a car – that's for sure," Lizbeth said. "But if you're talking about the whole network, we have a clearer picture. A few of our teams had explored the surface of Feros in a vast radius. We've confirmed that the Thorian's neural dendrites spread over most of this entire continent's surface, with numerous smaller neural clusters like ganglia nested all throughout the network."

"How could anything grow so big?" Tali asked in sheer wonder.

"Because the Thorian is not just one plant among many that might grow on Feros," Lizbeth said. "It's symbiotic. The samples we procured had living cells and tissues from thousands of different plant and fungi species! We believe that over the course of its evolution, the Thorian had… merged and melded with every single plant there is on Feros. It is an ultimate organism! It is a living bio-system. We're pretty sure that if the main brain was to be destroyed, one of these ganglia would reform as the new brain in as little as a few hundred years – a couple thousand at the most!"

There was a moment of deathly silence, with everyone too stunned to utter a single word. But a trail of thought was tickling the surface of Marcus's brain.

"So it was here during the times of the Protheans, and it's both sentient and intelligent," he spoke into the silence. "And… if it can control people, that means it can hear their thoughts, too, right?"

"Uh… yeah," Lizbeth replied. "It can 'see' and understand the thoughts of whoever it puts under its thrall. That's how it controls them, and it sure as hell is learning from the experience, getting better and more skilled. When the Protheans were here, it probably did the same thing – analyzing their brain patterns in detail, finding ways how to ensure its own survival. The poor bastards probably didn't even realize they had such creature living in the bowels of their city."

Marcus raised his eyes skyward in exasperation and released a long, tired exhale as he looked all around.

"You've realized something," Garrus stated discerningly as he watched their commander's reaction.

"Yeah, I've realized something, alright," he growled. "I've realized this Thorian is actually what the Cipher is."

There was a pregnant pause.

"This plant itself?" Wrex rumbled. "How could that be possible?"

"If what young Miss Baynham here says is right, then there is no doubt," Marcus said with certainty. "The Cipher is the memories of the Protheans the Thorian had enslaved fifty thousand years ago."

"By the Goddess," Liara exclaimed. "That's the key to unlocking and organizing all of the beacon imprints you have in your head, Shepard!"

"And that's what Saren was after," Kaidan said. "That frigate that seemed to be hooked on the lower part of Zhu's Hope tower – Saren must've been there."

"But how could he have taken those memories?" Tali spoke up. "I know computers and tech, but copying memory banks is one thing, and brain just doesn't work like that! I don't see how he could have taken that data."

"He took that data, alright," Marcus growled. "He has asari in his ranks."

"Mind meld – that's right!" Liara exclaimed. "My mother is with him, and she has two dozen followers. Any one of them could have made the meld."

"Is that even possible with a plant?" Ashley croaked.

"It's possible with the turians and the volus," Liara replied. "And both species have a fundamentally different DNA and different metabolism."

"We need to return to the colony, ASAP," Marcus spoke up as he turned and walked with a quick and firm step toward the Makos. He was interrupted by comm chatter going off in his earpiece:

" _Normandy to ground team, come in,_ " he heard Jaina's voice speaking.

"Go ahead, Normandy," he replied.

" _Marcus, we've intercepted a high-priority civilian traffic between Earth and Feros,_ " she spoke in a serious tone. " _The signal from this end is coming from a structure at the skyway's midpoint. Someone is down there, alright, and I'm not liking what they're talking about one bit._ "

"Hit me," he demanded.

" _The moment the long-range jamming was gone, the local ExoGeni head has contacted the main headquarters on Earth, reporting on the situation and asking for a course of action. Guess what the ExoGeni headquarters sent back: they've sent a directive to purge the entire colony!_ "

Marcus's response was grim silence as he ground his teeth.

" _I'm going to land at the colony's docking bays,_ " Jaina continued in a calmer voice, all too easily recognizing his silence for what it was. _"I'm going to stop anyone from hurting those people._ "

"Be careful. The colonists might not be themselves," Marcus growled. "Meanwhile, I have a conversation to make."

He cut the comm, then turned toward his forces as he shouted orders:

"Listen up people! The people of the ExoGeni seem to be alive!"

Lizbeth's head immediately snapped his way, eyes wide and hopeful.

"It is confirmed that there is a presence at the Weigh Station, and we're going to go there," he continued. "Stavros, you're riding with me. Miss Baynham, you too. We can transport up to eight people in the Mako, and eight more can sit on the rooftop. The rest of you are escorting the Tritons on foot. Move out!"

" _Uh, Marcus?!_ " he heard Jaina's bewildered voice through the comms.

"What is it?"

" _When we tried landing on the docking pad, the Zhu's Hope colonists opened fire on us!"_

He frowned. "Any damages?"

" _Negative, it's small arms fire. They're not responding to hails, and are ignoring our outside speaker broadcasts._ "

"Stay away from them, Jaina," Marcus instructed as he hopped into the Mako. "I didn't realize that they would behave like that, but the colonists seem to be under influence of an alien life form, and might consider everything and everyone as a threat. Circle around until we solve this mess."

" _Roger that,_ " she replied with a sigh, then cut the comm.

Marcus sighed as he hopped into the Mako. "What a day," he muttered.

..

* * *

 **ADOPTED WEAPON CALIBERS AND CLASSIFICATIONS**

 _I've decided that mass effect weapons need caliber classifications for the purpose of differentiating them throughout this story. But I can't really use "7.62 mm assault rifle" or "20 mm cannon", now can I? No mass effect round is that big. They're all sand-grain sized, and their stopping power depends on something else._

 _Therefore, I've decided to use caliber classification based on the intended role of the weapon, but using legacy system from when humanity still used gunpowder guns for the sake of simplicity and expedience._

 _As an example, modern-day heavy machine guns and anti-materiel sniper rifles are for the most part 12.7 mm. Their intended role is, essentially, to be used against materiel – vehicles, equipment, aircraft, and so forth._

 _Therefore, a 12.7-cal weapon in mass effect terms would be a weapon that fits the aforementioned role – of fighting against enemy materiel. Concordantly (and for the sake of simplicity) assault rifles would bear anything from 5-cal (such as the weaker-hitting M-7 and M-8), 9-cal (M-71 Revenant), and even 11-cal (M-99 Saber). The caliber would essentially denominate their stopping power, but not the actual kinetic energy of a single round and the damage it would inflict._

 _It would be logical, though, to have the guns of ships and vehicles slightly different. Their caliber would be based on gun length (in meters) and the size grade of the ship's eezo core that powers that same gun, because not every ship has the same eezo core size for its length. For example, small freighters might be as big as frigates, but it's certainly logical they don't have the same strength of their eezo core._

 _Size grade of the core would have eight categories, numbered 1-8, based on its strength and size:_

 _1 – mech walker/small ground combat vehicle;_

 _2 – large ground combat vehicle/shuttle craft/strike craft;_

 _3 – corvette/passenger liner/small freighter_

 _4 – frigate/standard freighter ship_

 _5 – cruiser/large freighter/ark ship_

 _6 – dreadnought/carrier_

 _7 – superdreadnought/supercarrier_

 _8 – special (2000+ m)._

 _ **(FOR THE RECORD**_ _, I'm using ship and vehicle sizes provided by_ _ **Euderion**_ _on Deviantart. If you Google "mass effect ship sizes", you'll find what I use._ _ **)**_

 _In this way, standard Alliance Alamo-class frigate's main gun is_ _ **4 x 232 caliber**_ _. The Normandy's main gun classification is_ _ **5 x 155 caliber**_ _because it carries a cruiser-sized eezo core. Obviously, since mass effect scales exponentially with eezo core size rather than linearly, almost any_ _ **5 x - caliber**_ _would be more powerful than virtually every_ _ **4 x - caliber**_ _._

 _A york-class cruiser's **main gun** would be **5 x 707** , BUT its **secondary guns** on its sides would be (for example) **5 x 20** \- because they are much shorter but still use the same core for power._

 _The Destiny Ascension's main gun is_ _ **7 x 1002**_ _– and, let's face it, the DA's design, from the military engineering point of view, is retarded. I mean – it's taller than it is long? And it has a hole in the middle? Why? What did the asari think?! I don't even… *sigh*… women! ;)_

 _And, obviously, the Sovereign-class Reaper's gun is_ _ **8 x 2000**_ _. A BFG._


	14. Chapter 14 - Into the Belly of the Beast

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

 _ **THIS CHAPTER is a**_ _ **tribute**_ _ **to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - namely, to the idea of the sentient planet-spanning xenofungus that plays the central role. It is the realistically dark future theme of that game that makes it perhaps the most amazing game that I had ever played. That game's amazing idea of a sentient planet-spanning xenofungus and its background story is what has inspired my alternate depiction of the Thorian.**_

 _On another note: grammar correction and error-checking tools that I use are giving me many false error positives. I've done my best to edit this chapter as good as I could, but if something turns out to be inaccurate, do notify me._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 20.1.2017.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 14 – Into the Belly of the Beast**

.

The pair of Makos rolled up to the middle of the skyway, pulling up in front of a large structure built into the side of the great road. The soldiers and security personnel dropped down readily from the Mako roofs, fanning out around the perimeter with their guns at ready as the rest of the forces popped out of the hatches and advanced toward the ancient structure with Marcus himself in the lead.

Marcus motioned for Stavros to move with him into the structure as the large garage doors opened up. Twelve people in total entered the building – six of Marcus's specialists and three of Stavros's men with Lizbeth in tow, with the rest of armed personnel staying outside at guard.

"Which way?" Marcus demanded as he looked through the very much empty hall that spanned the entire base surface of the building.

"Here," Stavros said as he advanced to one side of the building and pressed into an inconspicuous pressure plate.

The concrete-coated pressure plate descended into the wall, then sprung upward, revealing an old analogue lever switch which Stavros yanked downward.

There was a rumble, and the floor at the further end of the chamber began to slide backwards.

"A passageway down," Stavros said.

"What was this building used for?" Marcus asked.

"No idea," Stavros said. "That pressure plate was found by accident when one of the guys leaned against it as he was taking a five for a smoke. The Headquarters was notified when it was found; they must've figured this was as safe a place as any to escape the geth."

Marcus looked back toward his forces and motioned forward with his head.

"Move out! Stavros, take point."

"Roger."

Stavros led them down a large ramp that descended down into the lower reaches of the old skyway, going first down, then angling back by a 180 like a stairwell until they started hearing human voices. Marcus hand-motioned them all to silence and approached the entrance, peering down what appeared to be a stone platform that descended into a spacious chamber and heard the first clear sounds of a vicious argument.

"You can't do this, Jeong!" a woman cried out angrily.

"Shut up!" a man's shrill voice replied. "I need to think about this, dammit!"

"That's my mom!" Lizbeth cried out from behind him as she heedlessly rushed out.

A black armored hand lashed out sideways, grabbing her across the chest like a steel bar and launching her back into Stavros who grabbed her readily and placed a gauntleted hand over her mouth.

Before she managed to squeal a grievance, a black plated mask loomed over her, the pair of round, red ocular goggles glaring down at her and robbing her of her voice.

"Do not. Rush out. Into the nervous infantrymen's. Rifle sights," Marcus spoke icily.

Before the wide-eyed Lizbeth managed to move or try to utter anything, they heard someone gruffly speaking up from inside the chamber.

"I heard something!" someone shouted.

"What?" the shrill male voice – Jeong, apparently – demanded.

"I'm telling you there's someone out there!"

"T-there's nobody out there!" Jeong shouted. "If there were, w-we'd be hearing geth shooting at us by now, you dimwit! Think a little! What the hell am I paying you for otherwise?"

Marcus quickly motioned for Stavros, Alenko, and Williams to fall in.

"The rest of you," he spoke through their internal comms. "Fall in after us."

He shouted through his amplified external speakers,

"FRIENDLIES!"

And then he led his men into the chamber, the whole force pouring down like a river of armed troops after him.

The raised weapons from the other side quickly lowered down as shouts of, "The Alliance!" went over the vast hall, followed quickly by exclaims of relief as the numerous present civilians saw the Alliance troops and the remainder of their security forces descend down to them.

"Mom!" Lizbeth yelled out as she pushed through the armed throng and ran into a large chamber.

"Lizbeth!" the older woman cried out as her matronly face lit up in utter relief and she ran to meet her daughter in a fierce hug, tears of unshed tension spilling down her cheeks in a stream that washed it all away. "Oh, my baby, you're alright! Oh, thank you, heavens, you're alright!"

"So, she was alive," the short Asian man declared almost derisively as he stood imperiously with his arms on his hips before his head turned to look over Stavros's men with a decidedly sour look. "And I see so are others."

"Sarge!" one of those other men called out in surprise as he saw Stavros. "You're alive!"

"You're damn right I'm alive, Carlos," Stavros replied. "Now, where's Montoya?"

"Dead, Sarge," the man replied. "Ulrich, too. They covered our retreat so that we could reach the entrance to the tunnels beneath the skyway road – that's how we got here. There was no one in charge except Jeong until now." Carlos then turned his head toward the angry Asian man, speaking accusingly, "You told us they were all dead, Jeong!"

"That's _Mr. Jeong_ to you, Mr. Alonzo," the little man sneered as he stepped up to the taller man's face. "Don't forget who's paying you. And I didn't say they were dead, I said they were most likely dead." He then turned to look at Stavros. "So you're alive, and I suppose the colonists are, as well. And who are these people you dragged here with you? The Alliance? I'm surprised to see you here at all. Everyone knows how incompetent and late you tend to be when rescuing people!"

Jeong kept ranting. Marcus stepped forward, walking up to the ranting man and reaching up to unclasp his helmet.

"… and if people like you were on my pay list, I'd –" Jeong suddenly choked backed what he was about to say, flinching back, as he was met with a pair of ice cold blue eyes that looked down at him like he was a parasite needed to be crushed mercilessly.

"I am Commander Marcus Shepard, of the Systems Alliance," Marcus said slowly. "Now, I suggest you choose your words carefully from now on if you know what's good for you, _Mr. Jeong._ "

Murmurs arose among the troops that were guarding the Weigh Station.

"Holy shit," one guy spoke in amazement, "It's the Butcher of Torfan!"

"And the guy that defended Elysium," another added.

"Fuck me…"

Jeong fumed as he turned to look around, taking in the people's stances before he spoke up, though visibly stuttering as he tried to fight of his nervous jitters with an act of angry façade:

"Y-yeah? Well, I don't care what you think of this man here," Jeong yelled at the private security force men. "The ExoGeni's paying you, not Alliance, and you'll be following my orders! Now, the headquarters was clear about what needs to be done here."

He then turned toward Marcus, raising his finger toward him in what was probably supposed to be a threatening manner.

"As for you, I don't know who you think you are, but if you think you're going to interfere, remember that the colonization agreement of this world signed by the Alliance makes this colony _private property_!" he said, nodding smugly. "Yeah? See, you Alliance grunts get to protect this colony from outside threats, but you get no right to interfere in our internal business down here! That puts you in the breech of the agreement, and we'd be able to defend ourselves. I have over forty soldiers against – what? – ten of your people I see here, right?! So, I suggest you play ball, _Mr. Alliance soldier_."

Marcus just stared down at him.

"Are you fucking _stupid_?" Carlos spoke up incredulously through the ensuing silence as he looked at Jeong. "Do you know who this man is? Do you know what he's done? I mean, are you even fucking aware of what an N7 is?!"

"Does he realize that he just called war against the entire fucking Alliance Navy?" an unnamed soldier asked his buddy in amazement. "Screw the paycheck, I got nothing – hey, Commander! We've got nothing to do with this wacko!"

"Here-here!" another one agreed, with more of them nodding.

"Glad to hear it, soldier," Marcus spoke grimly, all this time not taking his icy stare away from the corporate executive before him who was turning left and right angrily.

"Dammit! You'll be in violation of your contract!" Jeong shouted at security personnel. "You won't be getting a dime, and you'll be forced to _pay back_ for what was invested in you!"

"Piss off, you fucking twat!" A British man growled back. "I'll sooner be alive and bankrupt than dead without being able to spend that money. You want to 'purge' the colony? Then you better get your own goddamn hands dirty, you wanker!"

Jeong huffed in a rapid breath like a weasel.

"Dammit, you don't understand!" he shouted angrily as he looked around. "There's a dangerous biological contaminant underneath Zhu's Hope colony, and the Earth Headquarters ordered us to purge the entire colony to prevent the spread!"

Lizbeth shouted angrily then, "You can't just repurpose people, you bastard!"

Jeong snorted. "You think somebody is going to miss a thousand colonists? Look how many died at Eden Prime!" he then turned to Marcus. "The ExoGeni will compensate you very well, Commander, if you –"

Marcus unclasped his machine pistol from his smart carry mag plate.

An absolute silence dropped like a ton of bricks throughout the room, as all eyes were riveted at the weapon.

"Here's what's going to happen," Marcus spoke gravely into the silence. "You will tell me everything you know about the Thorian, _Mr. Jeong_ , everything you've done, everything your bosses had told you to do, and after we're done, I'll be the judge, juror, and executioner of whatever I deem a fit solution to the mess the ExoGeni has made."

He cocked the gun. There were a few seconds of shocked pause.

"Y… you can't do that!" Jeong spoke up in shock as he eyed the gun in Marcus's hand warily. "Y-you're an Alliance soldier!"

Garrus, who stood right behind Marcus, spoke up:

"As of four days ago, Commander Shepard has been elevated to Spectre status of the Citadel Council. As such, no galactic laws apply to him."

There was a pregnant pause, and then the stunned Jeong searched the faces of Marcus's companions. He gulped when he met their angry, no-nonsense stares.

"What are you looking at us for, pyjack?" Wrex queried with his gruff, rumbling bass. "We're not gonna help. Hell – it'd be interesting to see Shepard blast your knee caps off just for good measure; you don't need legs to talk. And his guns use explosive ammo, you know. They tell me it's next to impossible to reattach limbs after that."

Jeong began sweating profusely, his eyes darting to the gun.

"L-l-l-look," he began, raising his hands halfway up. "Th-the Thorian is, like, extremely dangerous, Spectre," he spoke, trying to paint a nice story. "It – uh – falls under class 5 hazardous native life form. Now, that's the truth! And class 5 needs to be purged!"

"The Thorian," Marcus spoke slowly, "is a sentient life form. As such, it is protected by Citadel Sentient Species Protection Act, pending evaluation. And the colonists are _Alliance citizens_. That means that if you or your company are about to _commit genocide_ against them, you _are_ – as that soldier over there said a minute ago – declaring a war against the entire Systems Alliance. Not to mention the entire Galactic Council."

He paused for a moment, watching Jeong's eyes widen in impotent horror.

"So, now, I suggest you start talking," Marcus stated.

And Ethan Jeong did.

He told him the entire story, down to the finest detail – beginning with how they accidentally opened up the passage into the Thorian's lair and found out about the plant's capabilities. He spoke of how he communicated the intel to the Main Headquarters on Earth and spoke in detail of how the Board of Directors decided to turn Zhu's Hope into an experiment without any of the people's knowledge, let alone consent. The stamped correspondence between him and ExoGeni CEO was right there on his omni-tool; the written orders clear and unambiguous. And so was the final transmission less than an hour before. He admitted it was essentially the ExoGeni Main Headquarters' order to swipe the project under the rug solely for the sake of them not being discovered rather than fear of any biological threat.

In the end, the corporate executive sat at one of the cots, and placed his head into his hands, knowing that not only his entire career was over, but that he might very well end up behind bars. The sight of him the others could see was one of complete and utter defeat.

"What happens now, Commander?" Stavros asked when it was all over.

"Your men will take care of the people here," Marcus spoke. "My men and I will deal with the Thorian."

"They won't let you anywhere near it," Lizbeth spoke up. "The colonists, I mean. They're under its control."

He shook his head. "Not necessarily. The jarheads predicted the Normandy's usefulness in that field, so they equipped it with several canisters of the N7 Pax."

Ashley snapped her fingers. "The nighty-night gas!"

Marcus nodded. "The advanced antiterrorist tool for hostage situations, and this situation fits the bill. The Pax has a dual function of blocking non-somatic neural impulses and putting people to quick sleep, regardless of species physiology or DNA. We'll drop a few of canisters from the Normandy and have the entire colony safely knocked out within seconds. They'll sleep for at least two hours."

"The colonist's nervous system might be already compromised from the Thorian spores, Commander," Juliana Baynham spoke up suddenly. "They may sleep for significantly longer than that."

"Even better," he said, then tapped the comms. "Ground team to Normandy."

" _Go ahead, ground team,_ " Jaina's voice came through smoothly.

"Jaina, I need you to arm the Pax and drop it down into the colony."

" _Just what I was thinking myself,_ " she replied. " _I had already called for the crew to load the gas warheads into the tubes. But there's a potential problem._ "

"What is it?"

" _I'm watching the colony right now through the external ship's cameras, and there are some types of unknown alien life forms walking amongst the colonists. They came out of the hidden entrance to the colony. For all intents and purposes, those aliens look like plants!_ "

"Plants," Markus parroted in understanding.

" _Sounds like you know something,_ " she noticed.

"Something like that," he replied. "For now, just be ready to drop the Pax when I tell you to."

" _Roger that,_ " she said. " _I'll also prepare a crate of Pax grenades should you need them._ "

"Good thinking, you do that," Marcus called, then cut the comm. "Alright, people, listen up! We'll try to do this non-lethally, and luckily we might just be able to do so. Once the colony is pacified, we're rolling in and restraining everyone. The N7 Pax works quickly, and the warheads are designed to make it linger in the air for a long while, so sealed masks are mandatory until we say otherwise.

"Also, there seem to be alien plant-like life forms walking amongst the colonists. We don't know if the gas will affect them, but nevertheless, I want concussive shots, _only_. I will be the one to assess the severity of the situation and if more lethal methods against these aliens are needed. Now, who is the best expert on Thorian?"

The scientists looked amongst themselves, then toward Lizbeth and her mother.

"W-well, that'd be either me or my mother," Lizbeth said slowly.

"Good. You both ride inside one of the Makos with us. Alright, people, move out!"

The teams quickly began to shuffle with military efficiency toward the exit, with Ashley speaking up:

"So, let me get this straight," she said, counting it off on her fingers. "First we had walking cyber-zombies, then we found out about there being ancient machines that destroyed the Protheans, and now we have walking plants?"

Wrex chuckled. "I knew I was right to trust my gut about this being one interesting adventure! Next thing you know, there'll be living Protheans popping up from some ancient bunker or something!"

"If only," Liara commented wistfully. "I'd trade my last hundred years just for a chance to speak with one of them."

The teams quickly filed out of the Weigh Station and piled into and onto the vehicles, with Lizbeth and her mother entering the interior of one of the Makos, before the entire formation advanced toward Zhu's Hope. This time, and with no one to shoot them, they made the trek much faster, despite the wall-like debris, barricades, and broken geth platforms giving them trouble. As they approached, Marcus looked up into the skies, where Normandy circled in a broad arc around the Zhu's Hope mega-tower.

"Normandy, whenever you're ready," he called up.

Moments later, the vessel languidly changed course and angled toward the colony and approached into range. It angled menacingly downward, ignoring the colonists' futile gunfire and launching a number of small warheads armed with sleep/paralyzing agent. The warheads dropped onto the ground like smoke bombs, beginning to disperse the invisible gas.

Marcus watched as, within seconds, colonists' gunfire began to lessen in amount, until it was completely gone within twenty seconds.

" _Normandy to the ground team: the colonists seem to be completely neutralized; however, the alien creatures show greater resilience. Some of them are still showing signs of movement, although at a subdued rate."_

"Roger that, Normandy," Marcus replied, then led his forces into the colony.

True to its nature, the N7 Pax had neutralized the colonists with utmost efficiency. A quick check of vital signs on a few of them showed that they were truly asleep, with paralyzing agent coursing through their bloodstream.

"Jaina, the colonists are neutralized," Marcus spoke into the comms. "Land the Normandy, and transfer us those grenades. Miller, get those Tritons at guard duty next to the Normandy's cargo bay platform, and stay there in case we need a rear guard to protect our retreat."

" _Understood,_ " the man replied succinctly, and the two lumbering Tritons clanked their way toward the sideways passage.

"Shepard, look at this," Garrus called, and Marcus trotted up to him, his rifle raised.

On the ground in front of them, a creature was lolling drunkenly as it sat on the concrete, its head swaying to and fro. The moment Marcus saw it, he recognized the shape of its crab-like head and its four eye-analogues, and he crouched down next to it, all of his attention on the creature.

"Well, that can't be the Thorian," Kaidan commented. "I mean – this is small."

"Yeah, but what is it?" Wrex rumbled.

" _It could have been spawned by the Thorian, Commander,_ " came Lizbeth's voice through the speakers, the girl being safely tucked in the airtight interior of one of the Makos and was watching everything through the video feed. " _That's as safe assumption as any._ "

"Shepard," Liara spoke up in near whisper, "Didn't you say back when you interacted with the Beacon that the Protheans had four eyes and wide and elongated heads?"

The other squad mates turned sharply to look at her. That got their attention, alright.

"I did," Marcus said gravely, causing the heads to turn his way. "And this _is_ the rough mimic of what they looked like. The fact that there is a resemblance makes this more than a coincidence."

"Are you telling me Protheans were plants?" Ashley asked incredulously.

"These aren't Protheans," Marcus interrupted that train of thought with a firm voice as he examined the creature. "Protheans were flesh and blood – the Beacon imprint gave me at least that much clarity. These, however, are some kind of imitations. Look," and he pointed, "it's made of green vines of some kind, intertwined in an uncanny imitation of muscle, and tough green bark is covering most of it. No, this is a plant life form. I could bet they were made by the Thorian."

"What are those glowing things?" Tali asked as she pointed at several plum-sized orbs embedded deep into the creature's body and glowing with a soft turquoise glow.

"Fruit, maybe?" Wrex pondered out loud. "Anybody else, hungry? What?"

"I sense faint biotics in them," Liara said as she leaned in closer, passing her hand above bulbous growths.

"Biotics could explain a lot of things," Garrus nodded.

"Commander," Stavros called, "my men are reporting numerous other creatures like this one all over the colony and amongst the colonists, too. Some are reporting even larger creatures than this one."

Marcus straightened up from where he was crouching.

"Shepard to all teams," he called. "Assume the creatures are dangerous but do not fire. I repeat: dangerous, but do not fire!"

"You really think that's wise?" Garrus asked.

"No," Marcus said as he primed his rifle. "But if we attack these creatures, then their boss might not be inclined to work with us, and I _need_ what it has. I can't afford to have it killed until I get what Saren was after as well. Come on; we're going down to find this thing."

"Need an extra gun?" came an unexpected voice from the side.

Marcus raised his head to look to his left, and saw Jaina in full body armor, holding her Locust in her hands, with a pair of Normandy crewmen with breather masks on their faces carrying a large crate of grenades behind her.

Marcus fought off the momentary urge to just grab her into a crushing hug and never let go.

"What took you so long?" he said instead, his broad smile carrying through his voice.

She sighed theatrically. "Oh, you know – had to do my nails, destroy a wolfpack of geth frigates – the usual."

A chuckle escaped him before he turned his head toward the rest of his team and motioned them with his head toward the crate that the marines had deposited on the ground.

"Arm up. We're going down."

* * *

.

Twenty minutes later, Marcus, Jaina, and their six specialists were descending down the steps deeper and deeper into the lower regions of the Tower in a standard close-quarters battle-ready formation.

"Twenty minutes. How long do you think we'll be descending down?" Ashley muttered.

"We're nearing the floor that the ExoGeni had found the Thorian on," Jaina announced as she monitored the objective on her HUD.

"I'm detecting movement," Garrus spoke as he monitored his sensors carefully. "Lots of it."

"Nothing on the thermals," Jaina added.

"It figures. Plants do not produce a lot of ambient heat," Marcus commented.

"Contact, twelve o clock!" Garrus called as he scanned the chamber in front of them through his sniper. "I count five… six. Shit. I see a big one and I think he's seen us, too."

Suddenly, a thumping sound of heavy steps could be heard approaching.

"Spread out," Marcus commanded, motioning with his hand, and the team split in various directions, minimizing the threat of a wipeout by a large foe.

The steps grew in intensity as the floor beneath their feet began to vibrate with each step until a large creature – much larger than the Protheanoid creepers – came into the light as it passed through a large doorway. It was as large as a heavy mech, covered in thick, green, armor-like bark, with massive limbs and six turquoise-colored slit-shaped eyes on its almond-shaped head. Several Protheanoid creepers followed it, forming up on the juggernaut's sides.

And the creatures just stood there, warily, watching them.

"What are they doing?" Kaidan wondered as he eyed the creatures down the sights of his rifle.

"Watching us," Wrex spoke with surety. "Waiting to see whether we'll attack them or not."

"Calculated thinking. Self-preservation," Garrus commented. "Could these creepers really have that?"

"Geth had those when they rebelled against us," Tali spoke quietly. "And we thought them nothing more than VI-s."

Jaina just watched the creepers silently. It was becoming obvious, just as Wrex said. The creatures were watching them all carefully, assessing their actions, waiting to see if there would be conflict. The large one, especially… despite it not having any irises in its eyes, Jaina could tell without any shred of a doubt that it looked straight at Marcus, and no one else.

"It's looking straight at you," she said.

"I know," he replied without pause, then turned his head and met her eyes through her helmet's mask. A silent understanding passed between them, and she nodded. She turned her gaze back at the large creature and spoke up:

"Can you understand me?" she asked out loud, the chamber echoing with her words.

To everyone's amazement, the largest creature nodded, with a deep, vocal rumbling sound coming out of it. Jaina looked back at Marcus, the two of them sharing another silent understanding.

"Can you talk?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow.

The creature seemed to just look at him for a moment and then raised its chin up. Another low rumble came out of it, as the vines at its throat began shifting and unraveling, After a few long seconds, they formed an opening that shifted and vibrated, and sounds came out:

" _ **IIII c-c-caaannnnn**_ **,** " The creature spoke in a deep, drawn-out rumble.

"Did that just sound like asari language?!" Garrus asked in wonder.

"Goddess, it did!" Liara gasped. "It's Armali!"

The creature rumbled, and spoke again:

" _ **P-p-peeeaaaccce?**_ "

Marcus nodded. "Peace," he said.

" _ **Fffollow,**_ " It said, then motioned slowly with its head, and turned its hulk slowly, ponderously, almost like an elcor. The other creepers moved sideways, opening a path for the team to move through.

Jaina looked at Marcus questioningly, to what he nodded.

"Nobody fire without my command," he said, and started walking after the large creature.

The team followed in formation, with all of their weapons brought to bear, ready to blast their way if anything amiss was to happen.

The large creeper, for all its ponderous movement, was taking long strides through the halls and hallways they were passing through, stopping every once in a while to make sure it was not running away from others. Despite them descending ever deeper into the bowels of the skyscraper, there seemed to be lots of illumination coming in from all sides where empty wall-spanning windows used to have been. And more and more signs of life could be seen.

Leafy vines were sprouting from the crumbled rock, snaking across concrete walls and twining around steel beams, and patches of moss were sprouting like bushy fur balls at various places. And none of the tendrils seemed to stand alone. Every piece of every plant seemed to be connected to another, trailing like cables and roots, or a nervous system of a huge creature.

"Commander," Garrus spoke up at one point, "Look over there."

Marcus trained his eyes the way Garrus had pointed and saw the glint of metal. Twisted and mangled remains of several geth were sprawled across the floor, with several of them being impaled and crucified by the plant vines in a deathly strangle.

"They fought the geth," Jaina commented.

"I've never seen any plant do _that_ ," Wrex spoke as he looked at the geth that hanged off the wall by vines that surrounded him. "And I've seen everything."

"Come on," Marcus called.

More and more of the destroyed geth could be seen. Many of them seemed to sprout veritable weapon damage, punctures, and scorch marks, whereas many seemed to be crushed to a mangled pulp by some huge force.

"You think our friend here is responsible for those?" Jaina asked with a pointing nod at the plant juggernaut that led them.

"I don't doubt it for a second," Marcus replied.

Among the destroyed geth platforms, many of the four-eyed creepers could be seen scuttling about. Some of them were dead, with their bodies in the process of being twined in living vines and disassembled before their very eyes.

"Feels like we're in the bowels of a beast," Garrus commented.

"Anybody else noticing how there seems to less and less space not covered by plants?" Ashley asked.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Kaidan said. "We're practically walking on them."

"I've never seen this dense population of plant life," Tali whispered in amazement.

"It _is_ a beautiful sight," Liara said wistfully. "To see life sprouting again in what was once a dead world gives me hope."

"Hey, Commander," Kaidan called. "If this Thorian is sentient and all, do you think it might be angry if we're – you know – starting to step on its kin?"

"The juggernaut doesn't seem to mind us doing it," Marcus replied as he kept a careful watch to their guide, his rifle at ready for any sort of trouble.

"Is anybody else hearing that?" Liara asked suddenly.

"Yeah," Kaidan noticed, narrowing his eyes as he tilted his head. "It's like… crickets and animals?"

"It sounds like a forest," Ashley agreed.

As the group seemed to approach some undetermined destination, the sounds of nature seemed to grow stronger. More and more of the moving plant creepers could be seen about, with some of them silently following the group at a few paces distance.

"Are those creepers armed with geth rifles?" Jaina asked suddenly.

"They must've taken them from the geth," Garrus ventured a supposition.

"They're learning," Marcus said. "Adapting."

"Doesn't give me much comfort, Skipper," Ashley groaned.

"My experience tells me that I'll get out of this mess without a problem," Wrex said, to what Ashley perked up momentarily. "It says the rest of you are pretty much fucked, though."

Ashley sent him a dirty look, only for Wrex to chuckle evilly at her.

"Don't worry kid," he said. "I always carry a couple of cans of Black Napalm with me. It will be…"

He trailed off as the juggernaut finally led them into a gigantic atrium.

"… not enough," Wrex finished grimly as he gazed up, and up, and all around.

"The fuck…?" Jaina whispered as she and everyone else looked at the huge formation of plant life that was sprawled _everywhere._

The gigantic singular mass of diverse plant life was blanketing every piece of free surface in a thick layer, covering everything in vibrant, healthy greens, interspersed with numerous bluish-glowing pods and berries, and tiny glowing mold-like tendrils spreading across the walls. A massive torrent of water was gushing out from the ancient broken pipelines, falling like a waterfall and was running in rivulets across the area until disappearing further down the various cracks.

Insects were buzzing around; odd insects, from things that looked like butterflies and bees, to things that crawled like arachnids and slugs. Cricket-like sounds could be heard, strange bird singing and chitters from weird animals that seemed to run away from their presence.

And in the center of it all stood a single, humongous formation of glowing vines and tendrils intertwined together like some gigantic brain whose spinal cord descended down into the bowels of the building. It towered over everything, thick vines spreading from it in all directions, seemingly connecting it to everything around it like an organic spider web.

"That's… big," Jaina whispered.

"Bigger than a car my ass," Ashley croaked as she craned her neck. "That Baynham chick needs to get her facts sorted out. This thing's as big as a house! Literally!"

"By my calculations, it's six floors in height," Tali said hurriedly as she typed at her omni-tool. "This node alone could not fit into the central chamber of any of our Liveships!"

Marcus just watched, as the juggernaut that led them stopped at the terrace above which the massive growth was looming over. A group of non-glowing vines on the underside of the massive growth were working, undulating, almost like a throat was moving while it was swallowing.

And then, the vines separated, bringing forth a plant-like form of an asari being formed, like it was surfacing from behind a waterfall. Small, tiny vines and tendrils were literally weaving into her body, forming arms, hips, and legs, and finally solidifying into a plant imitation of an asari commando armor.

The vines held the asari clone suspended in air as their work was finished before the clone was lowered down onto the terrace standing on its own feet. Its eyes opened then, and everyone present witnessed the incredibly humanlike green eyes gazing back at them.

There was a moment of silence as the clone's gaze swept the group before it opened its mouth.

"I am the… Old Growth," the clone spoke slowly as if it was testing out its speech, trying to find the most accurate words, its voice resonating almost as if made of numerous others.

Marcus and Jaina shared a look, then lowered their rifles before they straightened out and slowly approached the creature, examining it carefully with their scrutinizing gazes. The likeness to an asari was remarkable. Its mimic of skin texture and tiny asari scales was astounding to the amount that one had to look closely to see the different texture that formed it. The creature gazed back at them, examining them emotionlessly just in turn, but despite the coldness, there was a glint of great intelligence in those eyes.

"When your juggernaut spoke," Marcus started as he pointed at the large creep with his chin, "was that actually you speaking?" and there he nodded up toward the giant plant mass.

"Yes," the clone nodded. "I spoke through it, and I speak through this form now."

"Why do you look like asari?" Liara asked, taking a careful step forward. "And how come you speak Armali? Where did you learn that asari language?"

The clone briefly looked at her before turning around and pointing to a large bulbous pod a few meters to the side that looked like a closed white flower, and was covered in glowing blue tendrils and dendrites through which energy pulses could be seen traveling like speedy flashes of light.

"In there lies an asari," the clone said. "She sleeps, and I learn from her mind. This growth is based on her form."

"Are you harming her?" Marcus demanded sharply.

"No," the clone replied simply.

Jaina eyed the white bulbous pod warily for a few seconds before she turned her eyes back to the Thorian clone.

"How did she get here?" she asked.

"She came with the cold ones; the… geth," the clone replied. "They were controlled by the one called Saren. He wanted to know of the Ones That Came Before – the Protheans. In return, he promised me what I wanted – to gain from him the knowledge that the … colonists… did not have."

Marcus and Jaina shared a careful look.

"What kind of knowledge are we talking about here?" Marcus queried.

"Every kind I can learn," the clone said.

Eyebrows shot up, and Liara spoke up first:

"You… you are curious!" she said, her eyes wide in amazement behind her sealed helmet's visor. "Is that why you took control of the colonists?"

"Yes," the clone said. "But they did not have enough knowledge. Their minds weren't great enough to help me with… finding the solution I sought. Saren convinced me that he could."

"And he betrayed you," Marcus supposed.

The clone was silent for a moment appearing to be in hard thought.

"Yes," she said in the end. "He said that he could help me find a solution. Instead, after that asari linked our minds and traded our thoughts, I saw his plans to bring forth the… agents of destruction upon everything – including me. I saw it in his mind! He was… two-faced. Lying. Betraying. So I attacked him, doing everything in order to kill him right then and there. I failed to stop him."

Marcus's and Jaina's head shot toward one another in realization, just as the rest of the teammates looked amongst each other before they quickly turned to the clone.

"So, that was what really happened," Marcus said. "It was actually you who threw the first punch!"

"We were wondering why the geth were attacking you on foot," Jaina said.

"And it makes much more sense when you look at it," Garrus added, making everyone's heads turn toward him. "The geth weren't trying to destroy the Thorian. They were trying to break through to Saren! He was in a tight pinch down here. That frigate that we saw rising from beneath? No denying it now – that was him there. When he managed to flee, the rest of the geth began their retreat as well."

Ashley's feral grin could be heard in her voice as she spoke:

"It's a nice thing to see other people – well sorta – had seen through the skull-face's plans," and then she quickly added, "Ah! Uh… n-no offence, Garrus."

Garrus's mandibles twitched in slight confusion. "I don't understand. A skull is considered a powerful totem in turian culture," he said, then spread his mandibles into a smirk.

"So, you fought Saren," Marcus spoke as he turned back to the Thorian, nodding. "I assume he still got the Cipher, though, right?"

"There was nothing I could do about that," the Thorian said. "The knowledge transfer that the asari did was simultaneous – by her touching both him and my mind vine. The transfer was quick. It took me… a few of your breaths to understand the depth of his deception from the thoughts I had received."

"A simultaneous mind meld with two people?" Jaina wondered turning to Liara. "Is that even possible?"

"Very much so, yes," Liara said. "It's called a poly-meld, but it's an advanced melding technique, and can be very hard to achieve if the meld navigator isn't either very skilled or the participants aren't highly in tune to each other."

"Alright, so we know what had happened here," Marcus nodded. "But what about the colonists then?"

"You _have_ used them to attack us," Jaina added.

The clone nodded. "It was because of your… ship," she spoke slowly. "I didn't understand then that it was different from the geth ones. To me, they were all the same flying things that wanted to give me harm, so I forced them to attack you. It wasn't until you… came out of its belly that I realized they were different."

"Alright, but that forcing and mind-controlling of the colonists is what we were actually really referring to," Jaina said sternly. "Are you aware that we absolutely _do not appreciate_ anyone forcing us to do anything? In fact, we will fight violently against it! You've seen the colonists' memories. You must've known that we, too, can bring huge destruction if we feel threatened."

"I have, and I do know," the Thorian replied. "But I needed to risk. I needed every piece of knowledge they had to find a solution. But not enough is there. I need more, and their memories show you as an Important One. You may provide what I need in a… " the clone stopped, tilting its head as if it was searching the right word before it continued,"… in _an_ _indirect_ way."

Marcus and Jaina were silent for a few moments.

"We'd be willing to accept that," Jaina said slowly. "But you need to release all the colonists of your control and _not_ to do that again to anyone else unless it is in self-defense. Think how you'd feel if someone were to violate you."

"I understand," The clone nodded. "Your terms are acceptable."

"Alright then," Marcus murmured, then sighed. "You said you need help with something."

The huge mind above them shifted, the pulses of light passing through it in greater intensity and the clone spoke almost forcefully:

"I need _a solution!_ "

"Yes, you've mentioned that already, several times," Marcus agreed. "A solution to what, exactly?"

The clone closed its eyes as the huge brain pulsed with light.

"I came to life long ago," the clone began. "I don't know when. You measure time; I don't. I just live, and breathe, and eat, and drink. And I grew. I learned that I can control other creatures on this world. They obeyed. They helped me grow. Many of them became a part of me, and I a part of them, unified with my body, working with me in… symbiosis. The more I grew, the more I could think, and the more I could learn. So I decided to grow even more, and learn even more. I wanted to know.

"But then came a moment when I could not grow any more, nor learn any more. There was too little food left. In my search for knowledge, I had become so big that I had consumed it all, and what was left couldn't sustain me. Suddenly without food, I shriveled. My body began to wilt and die. And with it, so did my mind. My thoughts became hazy. I could not think any more. I fell into a thoughtless existence that lasted for a long, long time. I… slumbered… unaware of myself.

"When I woke up, the world has recuperated, and there was food again. But I had forgotten. My body is my mind, and when the majority of it shriveled and died – I had forgotten. I began to expand once more, again almost nearing the new threshold of knowledge before the same thing happened again – I consumed everything once more, and everything repeated. And then again. And again. And again.

"I do not know how many times it took me to finally realize what was happening. Longer still to see the reason why. But once I did, I realized that everything would always repeat if I didn't do something. I would consume and grow, and I would eat everything again, and again I would shrivel when there was nothing left. Again, I would lose my mind, become less than I was, and sleep. I wanted to find a way to break free of the cycle. I wanted to keep my mind. But it required knowledge, and no matter how much I grew, I couldn't find the solution before consuming too much."

There was a heavy silence as the plant clone finished speaking.

"You…" Liara spoke up, taking a couple of slow steps toward the clone. "You can't remember how many times this had happened, can you?" she stated slowly, somberly.

The huge brain shifted gently as light pulsed through its plant neurons, and the asari clone tilted her head, her eyes looking up and to the side before she crouched down and began drawing dashes in the dirt with her finger. Dash after dash, the clone kept at it diligently until it finally stopped and straightened out after 23 dashes.

"This is how many times it has happened since I began remembering and realizing what was happening to me," the plant clone spoke. "It has happened many times more before that."

"Jesus Christ," Kaidan muttered in disbelief. "It has been trapped in a cyclic pattern of its own death and rebirth for…"

"Millions of years," Jaina finished grimly as she gazed up into the huge mind before them.

"Keelah."

"Spirits."

"And I thought us, krogan, had it bad with repetitive self-destruction."

Marcus just shared a wordless gaze with Jaina, before he looked at the clone.

"Something changed, I take it?" he asked.

"Yes," the clone confirmed. "It was after that many cycles of… self-destruction… that the ones you call Protheans came from the skies. When they came here, I got curious. As they built their… cities… I watched them and learned. They… presented something I've never seen before. They were… like me. Organized. Thinking. Realizing things. Solving things.

"I enthralled a few of them, and learned how to think beyond the scope of 'now'. I learned how to form… concepts… how to… test things. But I also learned that they would destroy me if they knew of me. I did not want to shrivel again, so I stayed hidden and learned. I learned their thoughts. Their minds were much vaster than other walking creatures that lived on this world with me. I used their form to create my own walking creepers. I knew that with the Protheans there, I would find a solution to never shriveling again."

"But before I did, the Protheans were suddenly and violently consumed by others who came from the sky."

"You know exactly who destroyed the Protheans?" Liara spoke up animatedly.

The Thorian's brain pulsed with light, and the clone pointed toward the pile of destroyed geth platforms nearby.

"They were cold ones, like the geth," the clone spoke. "The Protheans called them… the… Reapers."

Everyone shifted uncomfortably, looking to each other.

"So it is true," Garrus spoke with an ominous tone as he looked to others.

"They are the ones that destroyed the ones you call the Protheans," the clone kept speaking, her expression darkening into pure rage. "And they are the ones that the one you call Saren wants to bring back. I saw it in his mind when the asari made the link between us using her mind. Instead of the solution, I found his intent to bring the destroyers back. Their destruction. Death. He knew that they would destroy _me_ as well. He knew that the destroyers would come for me eventually, destroying me from above. I saw it! They wanted to force me into a final wither, the one without awakening, and I _**refuse**_ to let anyone make me wither again! The moment I saw what his plans were, I _attacked him_.

"He was too skilled, though. He used powerful attacks of blue light to flunk my attacks away and strike back. I only managed to capture the asari. She was closer to me during the transfer. Saren escaped, ordering his geth to fight me. I ordered the colonists to protect me from above, in turn, and spawned my creepers to fight the geth here. I put the asari to sleep and captured her in the pod, wanting to absorb her memories in order to fight the geth. It is there that I realized that the asari's mind was twisted by the touch of the Reaper, in the same way that I had sensed Protheans were long ago. It does not touch me, but I can feel it."

Marcus and Jaina narrowed their eyes, sharing a grave look before they slowly returned their gazes to the clone.

"What do you mean when you say ' _her mind is twisted by the touch of the Reaper_ '?" Jaina demanded slowly.

The Thorian's brain pulsed gently as it formulated its response.

"Like… colonists… are… to me," it said. "similar… but, different."

Shock slammed into everyone present.

"B-but the Reapers are supposed to be machines!" Tali exclaimed in agitation. "How could a machine control minds?!"

"Doesn't really matter how," Garrus shook his head. "If the Reapers destroyed the Protheans, then their tech must've been extremely high. Who knows what they have. What worries me more in this whole thing is the connotation that Saren already has Reapers with him. Hell, they could be the ones piloting that huge dreadnought – keeping themselves behind the curtains while sending the geth to do the dirty work."

"I'd have to agree to that being their dreadnought," Marcus growled. "When we saw it fire on the Normandy, it shook one of the Beacon memories loose. It was the image of dreadnoughts like those destroying cities, only…"

Jaina watched his posture knowingly, clearly seeing his concentrated frown behind his full plate mask.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

He was silent for a second before he shook his head. "There's something off about this whole Reaper dreadnought and the possible Reapers that might be piloting it. There's something – another piece of the beacon's imprint but… it's escaping me."

"Which is what we came here for," Liara spoke slowly, a small smile appearing on her lips. "Isn't it?"

Marcus turned to her for a second and nodded in agreement before he looked forward toward the thorian clone.

"What Liara says is true," he said. "I have Prothean memories imprinted in my head that are the key to stopping Saren from unleashing the Reapers, but I cannot understand them that well at all. This is why I need the Cipher. You want to learn ways of how to prevent losing your brain power over and over again? Give me the Cipher, and I can find people who can _teach_ you how. But you must work with them, not enthrall them!"

"I understand," the Thorian spoke at last. "I will do what you ask."

Everyone sighed in relief as the negotiations seemed to draw to a successful close.

"Right," Jaina spoke. "So, now we need an asari to perform the poly-meld."

The clone suddenly spoke, "No, you do not."

When everyone turned questioningly toward it, the clone spoke again:

"An asari was needed for Saren to learn. But the method she used was not efficient. It was not… in tune. Now, _I_ learned and have found the way to transfer thoughts much better than an asari ever could; an asari is no longer needed."

The Thorian's brain began shifting, and the non-luminous vines near its base that had spawned the asari clone began shifting again. A minute later, they opened up, and a single glowing vine came out, snaking slowly through the air toward Marcus. A blue colored and glowing bulb, shaped like an onion and the size of a volleyball, was attached at its end. When descended down in front of Marcus, it opened up like a flower, showing thousands of tiny hair-thin dendrites spread across the inner petals' surfaces.

There were a few moments of pause as everyone's heads leaned in to examine the flowery bulb.

"That goes over your head," the clone spoke. "But I cannot transfer memories to you through your armored shell."

Marcus slowly reached up and unlatched his helmet with a hiss.

"I hope the outcome is as optimistic as you hope," Jaina said.

"That makes two of us," he replied as the dendrite flower descended onto his head.

The sense of thousands of tiny tendrils enveloping his head was disconcerting. They were pleasantly cool to the touch, but they caused the instinctual surge of adrenaline that all humans had when insects crawled on their skin.

Then, it happened. A surreal sense of detachment from his body swept him, and he felt things that shouldn't have been possibly felt by a human mind. The sharing with the Thorian's mind felt like his own brain had inhaled fresh mint, invigorating and stimulating, and as if his senses expanded a thousand fold.

Images came next, followed by an immense sense of déjà vu. The sense of living another life flooded him, another time, another place. He saw things in a way a pair of eyes could never possibly see, sensed absorbing things through his skin in a way that human never possibly could. His limbs felt different. His felt as though he had fewer fingers than he should, but that it also felt accurate.

It seemed to last for a long time before it abruptly ended, leaving behind an echo firmly lodged in the back of his head. The thousands of tiny dendrites slowly detached from his head and the flower floated away, retracting back into Thorian's brain.

He felt hands steadying him.

"I got you," Jaina's soft voice came from next to him.

"How long did that last?" he asked.

"No more than a few seconds," was her response. "How do you feel?"

He was silent for a moment, looking around him.

"Different," he answered at last. "Something feels different."

Thorian clone spoke:

"It will take time for it to settle in," it said. "Everything takes time in life. Meanwhile, I will honor our agreement and release everyone I have enthralled."

They heard a sound from their side and saw that the large pod that apparently held the original asari begin to shift. Like yet another flower, it began to spiral and crack open. Wisps of vapor sprayed out of it and dissipated as it opened up, showing an asari in a fetal position and wrapped in a network of thin tendrils that slowly began to retract.

The asari breathed in deeply, then her eyes shot open and she jerked up as the last of the tendrils retracted. She jumped up from the opened pod and stumbled onto the thick carpet of moss that covered the ground, steadying herself as she dropped to one knee before she stood up slowly.

"I… I'm free," she gasped as she looked around and down onto her own hands. She looked up and saw the armed and armored people, and flinched when she saw her own clone standing with them. Her eyes locked onto Marcus.

"You," she started, "you're Commander Marcus Shepard, aren't you?"

"I am," he replied.

"My name is Shiala," she said hurriedly. "I was one of Matriarch Benezia's apprentices."

" _Was_?" Marcus intoned dangerously.

"No more!" she exclaimed. She sounded as if she was begging for something to stop. "By the Goddess and all that's holy, I am not with either her or Saren anymore."

The Thorian suddenly spoke through the clone:

"I told you she was touched by the ones you call Reapers," it said. "Her mind suffered for it but, because I fixed it, she is aware of it. She speaks the truth."

Marcus slowly examined the asari with his gaze.

"What should we do with her, Commander?" Garrus asked slowly.

Liara spoke up, "I know her, Commander. She served Benezia for several decades. She could tell us a lot of her recent activities. Maybe she could even shed the light onto what is going on."

"I will!" Shiala spoke up. "I will help you, believe me. I will tell you everything I know!"

"Then, we will go up to the colony," Marcus declared. "There are a lot of things to sort out."


	15. Chapter 15 - Revelations

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

 _ **Chapter posted on 31.1.2017.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 15 – Revelations**

.

"Well, physically, you're fine, Commander," Doctor Chakwas declared as she shut of her medical omni-tool.

"Well, that's good to hear!" Ashley piped up perkily. "Considering how it was with Captain Anderson, it'd set up a bad rep for the ship if both of its CO's had to be relieved of duty right after their first mission."

"What? You don't think I'd be a good commanding officer, Williams?" Jaina called out with a good-natured smirk.

"Now, that'd be telling, ma'am," Ashley replied in a mock-innocent way.

The people around them chuckled.

The entire team was still down on the colony, currently sitting or standing around a large set of chambers that served as the colony's clinic – a well-equipped one, at that – located on the second floor of one of the small side towers above the main rooftop plateau upon which the main part of Zhu's Hope was located. Nobody else was here; not now, at least. The colonists were only now beginning to wake up from their sleep.

"Regardless," the matronly doctor continued, "though you may be in the clear physically, Commander, you should know that I _am_ , however, detecting some very unusual brain patterns. Have you experienced any dizziness or nausea?"

"No, nothing of the sort," he replied as he stood up from the chair and adjusted his gear. "My sense of balance is unaffected, my eyesight is sharp, and I actually feel fresh and alert." He shook his head. "It's entirely different from anything like what you said, doc."

People were silent as Marcus looked the side, the contemplating frown creasing his brow.

"I can't explain it exactly, but I feel different," he said at last. "It's like seeing things in a different way."

He raised his ungloved hand and touched the desk in front of him, then removed it and looked at his palm.

"I feel the need to touch things," he said. "It's almost as if I'm expecting something to happen. There's nothing, of course, but it doesn't feel right that it is so."

"Your mind is adopting the Cipher, Commander," the asari, Shiala, spoke up from where she was sitting on a medical bed, drinking a cup of hot chocolate, slowly recovering from her ordeal. "You have been given a unique gift – to know how a Prothean thinks."

"If that is true," Chakwas spoke, "then the best medical explanation I can come up with is that your brain is undergoing a process of developing both new neurons and new neural links that would simulate a Prothean's neural physiology. Frankly, I've never seen anything like this in my medical career."

"It is not uncommon amongst the asari, Doctor Chakwas," Liara spoke. "The nature of our mind meld is such that we can adopt some neural physiology characteristics of our partners. Though it is only of minor magnitude."

"Be that as it may with asari, dear," Chakwas spoke with doctor's concern, "this is a human mind we're talking about. We just don't know what will happen."

Marcus spoke up then, addressing Shiala: "Is this what happened to Saren?"

"I assume it is so," the asari commando said. "I didn't have much chance of seeing the results before I was cocooned in the Thorian's pod. Whatever the case, though, I don't think Saren has much advantage over you, even though he did get the Cipher before you did. In fact, I think you are the one who has an advantage over him."

"Why?"

"When Saren traded with the Thorian in exchange for the Cipher, he had to use _me_ as a medium for the Thorian to transfer the knowledge to him."

"The… poly-meld, right?"

Shiala nodded. "That transfer method was the only thing Saren had available. But when I became a part of the Thorian, the Thorian then studied my body. He… it… was surprisingly quick and efficient at it. It joined minds with me using its own method, and learned from me – our language, our way of thinking – and it also found the way to make a more efficient mind meld. That is what was given to you, Commander. The Cipher you received was much clearer, much stronger, and much more efficient than the one Saren got. He might very well need weeks for the Cipher to truly take root and manifest in his brain, and even more to actually make heads or tails from the beacon imprints. But you, on the other hand, already _feel_ and are tapping into the Cipher's changes in you."

"It'd be good if it is as you say it is, Shiala," Jaina said. "It'd be good to be ahead of Saren in something, at least."

"I agree," Marcus said. "Right now, I'd take any chance I'd get."

"How about the imprint that the beacon gave you?" Jaina asked. "Does it seem a bit clearer now?"

Marcus thought on it for a moment, just letting his mind wander over the memories that were imprinted into his mind. Erratic flashes, static, noise – all of that was now almost gone. The images were now clearer, steadier, easy to look at where before he had to struggle to keep an image from running away from him after no more than a second or two. It was still far from fully clear and focused, but he could tell that there was an improvement already.

"It _is_ clearer, now," he admitted. "Nothing useful, however; not yet. The Thorian said to give it a bit of time, and I will. But right now, I need to know what is going on, Shiala. You were a part of Saren's crew. I think it's time you explain just what the hell is that maniac doing. I mean – trying to summon ancient genocidal machines?!"

Shiala took a deep breath as she lowered her gaze to the floor.

"I wish there was a clear-cut explanation, Commander," she replied. "But the whole thing is convoluted beyond measure."

Jaina spoke up as she took a few steps around:

"We know that he is searching for the so-called Conduit and that the purpose of that is so that he uses it to enable the return of the Reapers, the sentient machines that destroyed the Protheans… What we don't know, however, is why he's doing what he's doing. If we did, then we might be able to truly get ahead of him."

Marcus sat down on a chair and crossed his ankle over his knee as he leaned back and scrutinized the asari commando with his gaze.

"What was your role in all this, anyway?" he asked.

"I was a follower of Matriarch Benezia," Shiala said, then shrugged. "When she joined Saren, so did I, as well as almost all of Benezia's followers."

"Why?" Jaina asked.

The asari commando sighed.

"A little over ten years ago, Benezia started working with Saren," she said. "At first, they were just associates – two powerful, rich, and influential figures that had worked together to shape the Galactic affairs. With her as an influential Matriarch, and him as a Spectre, they could do almost anything. Before he met her, Saren was already an accomplished Spectre. When they started working together, he gained power unlike any other.

"But, as the time went on, Benezia began to notice a change in Saren. He was becoming more and more obsessed with countering humanity, and had begun openly voicing his plans of completely subjugating them; and violently at that. So, Benezia joined him, thinking her presence would help her sway him into a less violent path."

"Sounds to me like it happened the other way around," Jaina murmured.

"Which doesn't make any sense," Marcus stated. "Matriarchs are not morons. They have centuries of experience. No offence to all present, but nobody manipulates like asari do. What happened?"

"It's Saren's ship," Shiala stated ominously.

"That dreadnought?" Jaina asked.

Shiala nodded. "It's a warship of unprecedented power, unlike anything I've ever seen."

"You don't need to tell me," Jaina said ruefully as she crossed her arms and leaned back against a desk. "I had a close shave against its weapons. It beats anything the Alliance has. Hell – what _anyone_ has!"

"That's not its only weapon," Shiala said gravely. "The Sovereign – the name Saren gave to the ship – has a much more insidious tool at its disposal. I'm not an expert, but it's some sort of energy field. When a person is near Sovereign, that field interacts with the person's mind, slowly but surely driving the person to _think_ that Saren's way is the true way. The process is subtle, but it is absolute. It happened to Benezia… and it happened to me."

"Are you telling me that a piece of technology would really have the ability to control the mind?" Marcus asked skeptically. "Like the Thorian mentioned down there?"

Doctor Chakwas spoke up:

"I'm surprised that you ask that, Commander. You know well that virtually every clandestine agency in the Galaxy uses advanced neural-interfacing technology for interrogation purposes or for deep-level mental conditioning of their agents. And, besides, you know well what a batarian slave control chip does – a most vile piece of tech if there ever was one. In all those cases, the tech works to alter a person's neural landscape – identifying zones of brain activity associated with certain thought patterns and then working to either unravel the local pieces of the neural network or to create new links – thus causing a person's thought patterns to radically change."

"Yes, I know, but all of those technology solutions you mentioned require them to be implanted directly into the cranium," Marcus said. "And not only that, but they need a nearby external computer terminal that they're linked with so that it can control the process. But this thing that Shiala says is not an invasive operation – it's just a goddamn _signal_. It works by just being _near_ the damn ship!"

Chakwas nodded. "I agree," she said. "What Shiala is speaking of is simply far beyond anyone's technological prowess."

"Even geth?" Jaina asked as if she already knew the answer.

"They'd have needed tens of thousands of living test subjects from each of the species in order to find a way through which their brains work to even begin to think of developing a basic prototype of this kind of advance remote mind control," Chakwas said grimly. "And I do mean basic. Batarian slave chips work with brute force, and they often leave their victim barely coherent. This indoctrination, apparently, leaves the victim fully functional and acting normally. To achieve that kind of level of control, the Geth would need to raid whole colonies to get enough test subjects for the systems development. Something like that, even if the colony was deep in the Terminus, would surely have been picked up."

"So, it's just as I expected," Marcus said grimly.

Jaina looked down at him. "You're thinking that the Sovereign isn't a geth ship, aren't you?" she stated.

"You're right – I don't think it's a geth ship," he said. "Shiala, do you know where Saren got it?"

"No, I do not," Shiala replied gravely. "But you are right about your assumption, Commander, I can tell you that much. Many might think that Sovereign is a geth ship, but it is most definitely _not_! I was on geth vessels while I was with Saren, and I can tell you for sure that Sovereign is nothing like them. Geth vessels are not exactly ergonomic since geth don't need comfort, but even they follow some basic and well-known concepts of shipbuilding.

"The Sovereign, however, is completely alien in its design. Its internal layout is not just non-ergonomic, but seems as if it was never even meant for people. There are no decks, no elevators, no service stairs or ladders. The hallways defy logic, always curving and branching unexpectedly, and the chambers we used as crew quarters were actually made from prefab sections that were attached to the bulkheads. The only thing that seemed to be already made and incorporated into the ship was the chamber that Saren used as the Command Bridge.

"Other than that, there were no other chambers whatsoever. The crew was non-existent. Other than us, commandos, Benezia, and Saren, there were only a few more geth around – far too few to man a ship of that size. We never saw anything that resembled engineering. There were no corridors that led there, there were no comm reports from other sections of the ship. There were only… only whispers coming from the distance… apparitions in the corners of your eyes that would disappear when you looked, and a constant sense that there was someone right behind you, watching.

"It was not long that we realized that the only way one could hope to escape such sensations was if she was to be near Saren and heed Saren's wishes. Soon enough, we all became willing slaves to his will." Shiala then looked at Liara and said, "Even Benezia."

Liara said nothing, expressed nothing. Except the tightening around her eyes, she braced firmly through the torrent of conclusions that the information was bringing.

"What about now?" Jaina asked. "Do you still feel the whispers and see shadowy figures?"

"Not anymore," she said with great relief evident in her voice. "Since my time with the Thorian, something happened. Like the colonists, it made its influence on me. Maybe it's the spores, or maybe it is something else, but I no longer feel that terrible pull that the Sovereign had on me. It is still there – I can feel it, just sitting in the back of my mind – but it is firmly contained, forbidden from touching any more of my mind."

Marcus and Jaina shared a somber look, before turning to look at Shiala.

"What to do with you, now…" Jaina sighed as she mused out loud and sized up the asari commando.

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to help the colonists," Shiala said.

"Pardon my bluntness, but what can a commando like you do for a colony like this?" Jaina asked.

"Not the services of the commando, but there is something quite important that I _can_ do," Shiala spoke. "You see, the Thorian has become a… what do you humans call it… ellynfant in the room?"

"Elephant," Jaina corrected.

Shiala nodded and continued: "The colonists have lived for over a decade thinking that they would build a life here. Suddenly, bad luck came along and told them that they have a neighbor who had a house there long before they did; a neighbor who can be downright nasty if pissed off, but who will not mind them staying."

"Sounds about right," Jaina said, then squinted. "Where are you going with this?"

"The colonists will most certainly feel angry and violated for being used by the Thorian, Commander," Shiala said. "They will feel like leaving the colony in fear, and this fear and anger might lead to a desire for retribution. But after ten years of building, they feel that this is their home. That may very well sway them to stay.

"What I want, Commander, is to help bridge the gap that exists between the colonists and the Thorian. I wish to convince them that what happened with the Thorian will never happen again, that those that feel they must now run away don't actually have to, and that those that stay can live with their new neighbor. I want to mediate both sides, and ensure we can all coexist to a mutual benefit."

"A noble cause," Jaina commented after a moment. "And a hard and a long-lasting one."

"Nothing less would be expected if I were to mitigate the suffering to which I was in part to blame."

Jaina looked at Marcus. He nodded.

"We will allow you this, Shiala," Jaina said.

"Thank you, Commanders," the asari replied, sincerity flowing through her voice.

Garrus spoke up:

"Not to be the one to pour ground glass in your drink, but what about the Alliance? They might not be so fond of Thorian. Or the Council, for that matter; I know there are many agencies that would just _love_ to perform all kinds of tests on the beastie. You know – the kind that makes the test subject very angry and confrontational?"

"The Alliance and the Council can do jack shit about the Thorian," Marcus declared firmly from where he sat in his chair. "Feros is a garden world, and Thorian covers much of its surface. Hell – Thorian _is_ the garden that makes this world. To kill it would mean destroying a garden world, and that's against all Citadel conventions. Besides, the asari will jump at the chance to make contact with such an alien creature. They might be tenacious enough to stop salarians from attempting to do experiments on it, at least the invasive ones. The turans? They're dextro-amino; they won't care. The only thing that cannot be controlled are rogue and pirate agencies, but that is what will always cause trouble anywhere."

"I will mediate with the Thorian and teach it of these things," Shiala offered readily. "I will ensure that relations don't suffer because of the few rotten apples."

"Good," Marcus nodded. "With that, I declare this resolved."

Wrex barked a laugh from where he was leaning against the wall.

"Shit, Shepard," he chuckled, "I wish those pyjacks at the Citadel solved situations so quickly."

Garrus spoke up, "It is more likely that they will form a committee to find a solution to what kind of team should be sent here to assess the situation and write a report on it."

"And that's all they'll ever be able to do," Marcus said with finality, and then looked at Shiala. "You best begin with helping the colonists as soon as possible. The sooner you start, the faster we can achieve stability in this colony, which is in everyone's best interest."

"I will start immediately," Shiala stated readily, "if you don't want anything else from me, that is."

Marcus shook his head, and Shiala immediately stood up and left.

An ominous silence descended upon the gathered crowd.

"Well, that was a lot of info revealed in one sitting," Garrus said. "The Thorian, the Cipher, the Reapers confirmed as the destroyers of Protheans…" The turian shook his head.

Tali spoke up: "That last makes me very disconcerted," she said as she rubbed her forearm. "To us, quarians, having Geth as a scare-story is bad enough. Having ancient machines that killed a far more advanced species than any of ours are? Something like that is downright terrifying! And they can control minds!"

"Those ancient machines aren't here, yet," Marcus said in a low, grim voice, while he sat with his elbows on his knees, his fingers laced together. "Jaina, you got the render of that ship from the Normandy's sensors?"

Jaina nodded and activated her omni-tool, bringing up the file and flinging it into a nearby terminal. The three-dimensional image of the ship appeared in the air. Everybody got closer to take a good look at the monster.

"Tali," Marcus called as he looked at the image, "You're the best around here when it comes to understanding ships. You've been paying attention to the description Shiala gave of the Sovereign, right?"

"I did," the young quarian replied.

Marcus pointed to the vessel with his chin. "What do you think of it?"

Tali got closer to the 3D holographic render and began slowly padding around it, getting her face near, examining it from all angles as her interest in it grew.

In the end, she straightened up and took a deep breath. "Hmm… Looking at it now, and based on what we heard Shiala say, I'd have to say that I agree: this ship was not made to be used by people," she said.

"We get that," Kaidan said, "What with it being built by the machines and all, so –"

"No," Tali interrupted him, "you don't understand. I mean it was not made for _anyone_ to be inside it!"

"What do you mean?" Jaina asked, frowning.

"Look. Geth are machines – that much is true," Tali spoke. "But despite the fact that the geth themselves are VI-s, they are still very much dependent on their robotic mech platforms. That means that they still need space inside the ship where they would keep their mech bodies in an accessible state – to quickly wake up and run to a designated location. They'd need proper access corridors to move around, to approach various ship sections for maintenance. This is what Shiala was talking about when she mentioned Geth building their ships in accordance with some basic and well-established concepts.

"But if what she says about Sovereign is true, then we're looking at something else entirely! I mean – lack of decks? Lack of _any_ kind of crew quarters? Not even Geth build ships like that. From what Shiala said, it sounds almost as if this ship's interior layout is that of probes and unmanned vessels. That is what I meant when I said it wasn't made for anyone to be inside it. I think it was built to be autonomous. In fact, it's almost as if…" She trailed off, realizing something, with shock registering in her body language. "Keelah… that…"

"What is it?" Marcus demanded.

Tali remained silent for a moment before she exhaled and shook it off.

"Ah… Nothing, sorry," she said, waving it off. "It was an outrageous idea that just popped up in my mind, really."

Jaina then reached out and placed her hand on Tali's shoulder sending her a firm, somber gaze.

"Tali, we've just met a planet-spanning, million-year-old talking plant that mind-controls people," she said gravely. "I think that we need to abandon our staid ideas of outrageousness."

An understanding passed through everyone present. Tali swallowed, then exhaled, and finally spoke:

"Point taken," she said, then looked at the image of Sovereign. "It's just that… well, when I said that the ship is most definitely built to be autonomous, an idea popped into my mind – that this ship… Commander, I think it might actually be a single, giant AI."

Silence.

The incredulous looks were shifting back and forth between Tali and the Reaper ship. All except Marcus.

"Marc?" Jaina spoke quietly, recognizing that grim frown of determination on his face, "You're not thinking what I know you're thinking, are you?"

Marcus looked her straight in the eyes, and spoke in a low voice:

"I don't doubt it for a second."

Jaina clenched her jaw and her eyes tightened in worry as she glanced at the Sovereign's projection.

"Mind sharing that revelation you two had obviously just had?" Wrex rumbled very slowly, sensing the grim aura around the two Commanders.

Marcus just looked at the projection for a second before he pointed a finger at it.

"That thing over there," he said waving a finger at it, "I think that is not just some Reaper ship Saren found. I think that _that_ … is an actual Reaper."

The teammates spent a second rooted to the spot like stone statues before the eerie sensation passed through them and their gazes slowly turned toward the Sovereign's projection. After a moment, Garrus was the first to speak:

"How can you be sure, Shepard?" he asked slowly.

"Because it's all here," Marcus continued as he tapped his temple with his finger. "The beacon gave me a lot of info, and I'm still sorting it out, but today's events had shaken up a few memories loose even before the Thorian gave me the Cipher. It happened when the Sovereign fired its weapons. It loosened up a beacon memory of the very same beams of destructions, and they were being fired by multiple Sovereigns. And it was not just one image… there were hundreds of images overlapping. Hundreds of different worlds, hundreds of different battles all crammed into one burst, but there was one thing that was unmistakable. It was the towering hulks of Sovereign's kin. Now, I know that you might think that it just might be ships, but it's more than that. It's about the imprint of the Prothean enemy's face that the beacon transferred to me.

"Enemy's face?" Ashley asked bewilderedly.

"Yes – face," Marcus said, leaning forward in his chair and stapling his fingers together. "In any war, the enemy always has a face. Tell me, Ash, what was the face of the enemy in the First Contact War?"

"Well, it was the Turian Hierarchy," she said, shrugging.

"No, I'm not asking who. I'm asking what was the face," Marcus reiterated. "When I'd yell "enemy", what would flash before your eyes?"

"Well, it would be a turian's face," Ashley said slowly.

"Not turian frigates or APC-s, right?"

"Right! I think I get it."

"That is what I'm talking about," he said. "Just like the turian's face was the face of the enemy during the First Contact War, that way, to everyone, the enemy's face was that of a rachni warrior during the Rachni Wars. During the Rebellions, it was the face of a krogan. To a quarian, even today, the face of the enemy has a flashlight in its center. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Everyone nodded, murmuring affirmatively.

"Good. But, you see, in the images that the Protheans gave me, _this_ ," and there he pointed at the Reaper, "this is the face of the enemy. When the word 'Reaper' is thought, the beacon imprint sends this – the Sovereign's image – into my head. There were no other things. No mechs or geth-like troopers. There were only huge, monstrous constructs with tentacles and red eyes that shot beams of death. That was the enemy's face. So, yes. There is no doubt in my mind that what we're seeing here is a Reaper itself."

Liara spoke up after a moment:

"I am ready to believe that!" she declared, drawing everyone's attention. "The Prothean beacons do not just transfer images or sounds. They also imprinted and transferred the Prothean's emotions, impressions, sensations – everything that makes the information as accurate as possible. If the beacon imprint gives you the impression that the Reaper is nothing else but this," and there she pointed with her open hand at Sovereign's image, "then I _know_ it is accurate."

There was a prolonged silence as his teammates' gazes stood riveted to the image of the alien vessel. The ship suddenly seemed like a true living creature rather than the imitation that they thought it was. The more they looked at it, in fact, the more the idea seemed obvious. The contours that were first thought to be made for intimidation and psychological warfare now seemed something else entirely; and it only made it far more intimidating.

"It seems more logical by the minute, when you think about," Garrus muttered. "Why would a machine want to remain in a small shell when it can assume a form which is huge? It provides far more mobility, far more protection, more guns…"

"The processing power that would be inherent with the size must be off the charts," Tali said. "It is only logical – the bigger the body, the bigger the computer that can fit in."

"The Protheans must've been crazy to build A.I.-s of such magnitude," Wrex rumbled. "That, or they _really_ needed to have someone squashed."

Marcus chuckled. "Really? The Protheans built it – you really think so?"

"Who else was there?" Wrex retorted, shrugging.

"Liara?" Jaina called, turning her head toward the young asari.

"Yes, there were many species before the Protheans," Liara immediately spoke, understanding Jaina's cue and going for the core. "That's what my archaeological findings and theories have confirmed. They all have risen up at one point in time to rule at least one part of the Galaxy before they were violently cast down. The same pattern seems to be repeating at regular intervals, and the Protheans were merely the last ones in the line."

"So, you're telling us some of those earlier civilizations may have built the Reapers?" Kaidan queried.

"Something like this?" Marcus said skeptically, then nodded with his chin toward the projection. "Something with _that much_ foreign shape? I don't think anyone could have built it. Just look at it. Nobody would have been crazy enough."

"I think I see what you're saying," Jaina ventured carefully, her gaze scrunching up in concentrated thought as she leaned in toward Sovereign's projection. "We might have something akin to the geth here. One of those ancient civilizations had built a precursor prototype of a Reaper as a weapon to use against others and the weapon got loose. Tali? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Armatures and Colossi, as well as those Juggernauts and Prime units – they weren't around at the time of the rebellion?"

"No," Tali agreed. "They had built and developed it themselves much later in order to optimize their destructive and processing powers."

Jaina nodded. "And, like the geth after the rebellion, the Reapers might have continued on advancing after they had destroyed their original creators," she said. "Like the geth, they could have built more of themselves and could have advanced their own form into what we see here."

"A perfect killing machine," Garrus mused as he leaned against the desk above which the projection was and carefully examined it with his predatory gaze. "Huge, with supreme destructive capacity, its shape such that it is perfectly adapted to existence in outer space. Yeah… with them not being constrained to a single body, I can definitely see that happening."

They all listened with grim attention as he gave his analysis.

"I can't say that I would know what protocol would dictate such machine's actions, but if I was an AI, I'd want to ensure my survival," Liara said. "That means that I'd want to destroy everyone else who might come along after – thus destroying all of those civilizations whenever they came to rise in power."

"That actually makes perfect sense," Wrex declared. "That's _exactly_ what I would have done if I was in their shoes to ensure my survival – actions done with cold, hard logic. Like a machine."

"Well, if that's the case, then why aren't we seeing any more of the Reapers but this one?" Ashley queried. "Why is only one here, and why would it need Saren's help to enable the return of its kin? And why in God's name would Saren want to bring them back in the first place?!" she finished with exclaim.

"He hopes to control them somehow, no doubt," Marcus said, looking at her from the corner of his eye. "Anderson was adamant enough that Saren hates humanity's guts. He might even be satisfied to just point the Reapers in our direction."

"Fair enough," Ashley said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Though that still leaves the questions of why is only one here and why does it need Saren?"

"Scouting," Marcus declared with a shrug as if it was a natural thing.

"That's right," Jaina backed him up. "This one might be nothing more than a vanguard sent out to scout the Galaxy for the best way to defeat us – examining our defenses, seeing where we are the weakest.

"And as for why it needs Saren's help, it might be that Sovereign is using Saren in turn," Marcus said, sharing a look with Jaina.

"Precisely," she agreed. "Sovereign might have played Saren – promising him a power of some kind, or maybe promising to help him destroy humanity if he were to help Sovereign in his plans. Who better to help him undermine our own defenses than the Council's top agent, the one who knows all the protocols and weaknesses? Hell, for all we know, Saren himself might be indoctrinated by the Sovereign's mind controlling abilities, just as Shiala was."

"Keelah," Tali muttered in dread. "To think that a machine could be that advanced."

"Enough to be a master of manipulation," Liara said. "A terrifying thought indeed. But with all that we're seeing…"

"Hmm… maybe," Kaidan agreed, "but there is something that's nagging at me something fierce."

"Go on," Marcus prompted.

"It's back when we were on that skyway, about to storm the second mega-tower," Kaidan said. "We've seen then what the Sovereign is capable of when it launched that attack against the Normandy."

"It sliced the top of that distant mega-tower right off like a hot knife through butter," Wrex agreed.

"So, why didn't it finish its job with us back on the skyway?" Kaidan drove the point. "I mean – Saren had already lifted off with his frigate, and we were right there in the open! It could have leveled the entire colony. Why didn't it?"

There was a moment of pause.

"Actually, I think I have an explanation to that," Garrus said as he turned bodily toward the others. "This Sovereign, even if it really was a Reaper and even if it was extremely advanced compared to us, it is still one ship. There is just no way that it's indestructible, no matter how much advanced it is. All evidence points to that fact."

"What do you mean?" Marcus asked.

"Look carefully at what is going on," Garrus said, spreading his arms. "Look at how Sovereign and Saren are approaching this whole thing of bringing about the return of the Reapers. They're doing it in secrecy; as far away as possible from anything that might reveal their true goal and Sovereign's true nature. Why?"

"Because if the Council knew for sure they have a giant-ass, dreadnought-sized AI freely walking about, they'd go haywire faster than you could blink," Wrex declared loudly. "They'd muster every single gun in the Galaxy down to a peashooter to kill it, Terminus tensions be damned!"

"Precisely," Garrus said. "This is typical highly-advanced AI behavior we're seeing – another piece of evidence that the Sovereign is really an AI. It is hiding from organics. Because if the Council found evidence that Sovereign truly is a Reaper, they'd muster a fleet at the very least."

"So, how does that tie in to it not shooting us from the skies when we were on that bridge?" Ash queried.

"Because it is one thing to destroy a millennia-old and abandoned mega-tower when it tried to destroy us in the Normandy," Jaina spoke up. "It is quite another to destroy a whole civilian colony."

"Exactly," Garrus pointed out, raising his eyebrows. "Combat ships get destroyed all the time – that hazard's in their purpose description – but colonies being bombarded from orbit? All hell would break loose if someone performed an orbital kinetic strike against an established colony. Not even pirates do that. According to the standard protocol, a _major_ and a very-well-equipped investigation would ensue, and they'd be sure to discover this wasn't an ordinary ship that fired. Sovereign didn't use its weapons on Eden Prime, but if it did here, simple impact analysis and the destruction patterns would instantly suggest super-dreadnought weaponry that is way above anything we have. That'd raise quite a few red flags. I think Sovereign knew that. In fact, I'm positive it considered that."

"My god," Kaidan muttered.

"You can say that again, Lt," Ash said with dread creeping into her voice. "That amount of intelligence in a machine is downright evil."

"And something we must not disregard," Liara pointed out. "Wars are not won by having the biggest gun or waging a long fight, but by successfully performing a critical strike. I am not an expert on war, but even I'd wager that this is what Sovereign is trying to do."

"And I'd bet that the critical strike will occur the moment Saren finds the conduit for it," Marcus finished with a growl, then turning abruptly from where he stood and taking a few nervous paces around the room. He stopped, placing his hands on his hips and releasing a heavy sigh as his head dropped down. "For all we know, the moment the Cipher solidifies in Saren's head, he might have enough info to instantly summon an army of gigantic machines to pour from wherever they are and steamroll through us."

"That might not be the case," Jaina said calmingly. "We don't really know how they'd fare against our warships."

"Oh, but I do know," he said ruefully.

She searched his face carefully, reading the minute tells that nobody but her knew existed.

"Is it the beacon imprint that's showing you that?" she asked.

"It showed as much already back when I first accessed it, Jay," he rumbled somberly. "I've seen flashes of images even then – of how the very same beams the Sovereign launched against you destroying fleet after fleet of Prothean warships; it's just that I couldn't see who was firing those beams back then. And if the Protheans were as advanced as we all think they were, yet have fallen to the Reapers, then what kind of chance do you think we'd have?" He shook his head. "There is no other way, Jay. We either stop Saren before he opens the conduit, or we all perish."

There was a moment of grim silence in which he sighed once more.

"I just wish the Cipher in my head would fix these images faster."

Jaina swallowed a lump, forcing a neutral face. She could acutely sense the depth of his burning need to stop Saren and to stop Reapers; she felt just the same, too.

But there was something to be said about the frustration of having the solution already at hand, but lacking the key to open and use it; especially when it was something as survival of the Galaxy that was at stake. She wasn't the one in possession of that key, so she didn't feel it.

Marcus, though? He felt it. Oh, god, she knew he felt it hard. It made her wanted to step in close to him, to touch and hug him, to at least touch his cheek and tell him it'd be okay… but it wouldn't be… proper. And she cursed it inwardly. She cursed that need for soldierly stoic-ness in front of their subordinates and that fickle aspect of human mind that needed to have a strong, unmoving leader. She knew Marcus was strong enough to keep it in for as long as it took, but still… doing the right thing hurt.

It was then that Liara spoke up hesitantly:

"There… might be a way to help you remember faster, Commander."

That immediately brought both Jaina's and Marcus's attention. Both of their heads turned to her – Marcus's alert and focused; Jaina's almost desperately hopeful.

At the onslaught of the entire team's gaze turning attentively toward her, Liara force-schooled her face into neutrality, sending a couple of quick glances left and right from the corner of her eye, gauging everyone's reaction.

Her cheeks were darkening, Jaina noticed. Guardedness, consternation, self-consciousness – all of that was written over the young asari's face – but she was pushing it down. A sense of duty the young woman felt was indomitably pushing all those sensations down, and Jaina felt a huge surge of approval for the young asari welling up in her.

"This is not something that's… conventional… is it?" Jaina asked with a small smile, then nodded invitingly. "It's alright, Liara. I assure you, every single one of us here is aware of what's at stake if we don't pursue every single path we can; even a drastically radical solution is better than having no solution at all."

Liara chuckled wryly, her eyes still not brave enough to meet Jaina's.

"Well, it might really sound radical, but I assure you it is benign in its nature," the young asari said, then took a deep breath and sent a clear and solemn blue gaze Jaina's way. "What I am proposing, Commander, is a mind meld between Commander Marcus and me. It will help sort out the imprint faster."

There was a moment of silence.

"Umm," Ashley spoke up uneasily, looking sideways at the girl, "not to sound shocked, but – isn't a mind meld how you asari have se… I mean, _procreate_?" she finished with a croak.

A heartbeat passed in complete silence before Liara spoke:

"I'm… afraid that I'm not very familiar with human customs, Chief," she said slowly, almost innocently. "Is this a… proposition?"

Another heartbeat of silence before Ashley began sputtering.

"Pr-prop-w-wha?! Nooooo, nonononononono! Hold on!" Ash declared loudly, standing up and making a warding motion with her hands. "I-I-I wasn't… look, I… this…" she stammered for a moment before her eyes met Liara's.

Mischievous amusement was breaking out all over Liara's face, making Ash narrow her eyes in sudden realization.

"Ohhhh, I so fell for that one, didn't I?" she said.

A loud, raucous laughter exploded among everyone present, blowing off the tension that was building up dangerously.

"Alright, laugh it up!" Ashley declared in mild annoyance before she turned her eyes to Liara. "But just so you know – it's game on, asari," she declared with a smirk, to what Liara merely crossed her arms over her chest, a quirk forming in the corner of her mouth.

"To answer your question, Chief," Liara spoke, bringing the permeating laughter to a hold, "there are many ways the asari melding can be used other than procreation or sexual liaisons. It is quite common for close friends to meld with each other. It can be used to share memories, to share experiences that were once felt, to share knowledge – much like the Prothean beacons themselves, in fact. But it can be also used to help another person, to alleviate pain, heal mental scars, or bring a peace of mind. There is a reason why it is called a _mind_ meld."

"Hmm, interesting," Jaina mused, her attention instantly perking up as she took a step toward Liara.

Marcus first sighed, then chuckled inwardly. He knew Jaina, he knew her tells and thoughts, and he knew exactly what was going through his wife's randy mind at that very moment. And there was nothing he could do about it to assuage her, even if they'd been in private; that woman was tenacious and unyielding when she set her sights on something.

Jaina continued, "Well, while I can I definitely say that I wouldn't be against this idea of you melding with Marcus, Liara, I'd still be interested to know how is it that a mind meld can help in the first place?"

Liara took a contemplative huff as she thought out a way to explain before an idea came to her, her face instantly lighting up.

"Ah! I got it," she spoke up animatedly. "Do you know what a sliding puzzle looks like? A 5-by-5 image made of twenty-four small squares, with one square missing so that you can slide the other squares around to form an accurate image?" When everyone nodded, she continued, "Well, that's what Commander's brain right now is like. It has received a bulk transfer from the beacon, but the full image that the puzzle should create was mostly blurred save for a piece here or there. Now that he has received the Cipher, his brain can finally recognize what that image is supposed to be, and it is instinctively searching for a way to put the puzzle into proper position by sliding the pieces around. The thing is, his brain has only enough free room, so to speak, to slide only one piece at a time. It takes a lot of time to slide the pieces around in order to complete the puzzle, does it not?"

Everyone nodded, shrugging as they conveyed their understanding of the simplicity of the explanation.

"Well, what would happen if there was more than one empty square to maneuver all those other pieces around?" Liara continued, driving the point. "What if there was a whole additional empty row down which you could move those pieces of the puzzle? Or a whole new empty board? How quickly could you complete the puzzle then?"

"A minute, no more," Jaina declared, slowly understanding where Liara was going to.

"And that is what the mind meld would provide," Liara said eagerly. "I would virtually offer a part of my mind to be used as a whole new space through which to shuffle the images so they could align into their proper place! And furthermore, I was trained in the more complex techniques of mind sharing. With me helping the images slide along, I am certain that we could finish in seconds what would otherwise take days or maybe weeks for Marcus's mind to do on its own!"

Liara huffed out a breath of air victoriously as she finished, grinning, and her gaze passing over everyone to see whether they understood.

"Huh… it certainly makes perfect sense when you explain it like that," Kaidan declared.

"Eh… I already knew of that thing the asari can do," Wrex said off-handedly, shrugging from where he leaned against the wall. "An asari friend helped me once like that, long ago, when I had a particularly nasty blood rage episode."

"I had no idea an asari's mind abilities extended that far," Tali admitted in amazement, looking at Liara solemnly.

"Few do, unfortunately," Liara said ruefully. "They are mostly interested in the overinflated stories of our promiscuity. Though, to be frank, not many maidens are exactly eager to prove them wrong, if you know my meaning. And this is why I'm particularly being careful not to presume anything when it comes to this," she said, sending a bold gaze to both Marcus and Jaina in turn. "Because, no matter how you look at it, melding is considered… an intimate matter… I wouldn't want this to be misinterpreted as an intrusion into your marriage."

The corner of Jaina's lips quirked into a small smirk. "I assure you, you need to worry about that from me, Liara," she said, then narrowed her eyes discerningly. "Though I am actually more wondering about you… I get the feeling that a meld is a very important matter to you."

Liara nodded slowly, keeping her eyes down to the floor.

"It is," she said quietly. "I have always considered it a special thing not to be stepped into lightly like so many others do, and only to be shared with confidants or trusted friends. And I feel that you, Commanders, are the kind of people I could trust with anything."

"You don't have to do this, Liara," Marcus spoke up. "I understand that this is –"

"It's alright," Jaina interrupted as she looked at him. "Look, there's nothing for me to mind, Marc. As an XO, I'd have to insist that you do it for the sake of our mission." She then looked at Liara. "Besides, as a wife, I'd be grateful that there's someone who is willing help keep my husband's mind healthy."

Liara's shoulders lowered slightly in relief, and the young asari smiled back gratefully at Jaina for being understood.

"Alright," Marcus said after a moment. "We'll do it. Thank you, Liara, for going out of your way to help us."

Jaina spoke up then, "Shall you two do it immediately, or…?"

"I'd have to advise you to do it when we're safe on the Normandy," Doctor Chakwas said seriously. "This clinic might be well equipped, but I wouldn't feel comfortable until we're safely at FTL where no one can interfere – should any complications happen to either of you."

"Very well, Doctor, we'll do that," Marcus said, then spoke to the rest of the crew. "Pack your gear. We're lifting off as soon as we make sure the colony is going to be secure."

His team filed out of the clinic and trekked toward the Normandy with Marcus and Jaina following a bit behind, when a chime came from his omni-tool.

"Shepard," he replied after he tapped the button.

" _Pressly here_ ," came the Navigator's voice. " _The SSV Athens has just entered the system. I've updated them on the situation, and they'll be dropping shuttles in approximately twenty minutes_."

"Understood," Marcus replied, then cut the comm and turned to Jaina. "Come on; let's go see what's going on with the colonists."

The two of them left the clinic and descended down the short platform. The clinic had been set up on one of the side towers that rose from the main rooftop plateau upon which the colony proper was established. As they walked across, Marcus and Jaina noticed that the colonists had already woken up from their gas-induced sleep, and were now slowly working through the prolonged stiffness that would stay with them until tomorrow morning.

They made their way to the center of the colony, from where the ExoGeni scientists were working with the colonists. Stavros and his men were there too, providing immediate security and assistance, but what surprised Marcus the most was the sight of several Thorian creepers with the asari clone itself standing near the entrance to the lower reaches of the mega-tower.

"Commanders," Stavros spoke up as the two joined up.

"What's the situation, Stavros?" Marcus asked as he nodded toward the Thorian creepers.

"They just came a few minutes ago and said they want to establish peace," Stavros said. "The colonists are wary, but nothing untoward has happened. Fai Dan is there, along with that asari commando; they seem to be mediating. I gotta give that man some credit; he knows how to keep his head cool. The colonists seem to respect what he says."

Marcus nodded, and they approached the small grouping. Fai Dan was there with a few colonists in tow. Lizbeth Baynham was there, too. The Thorian had sent two of its massive juggernauts to protect the clone, as well as four Prothean-like creepers that were armed with pilfered geth rifles. They were facing no less than ten of Stavros's men, all of them at stand-down but their stances wary.

"Commander," Fai Dan spoke up when he saw him. "I can't thank you enough for saving us from the Geth. I'm sorry we fired on your ship."

"It is _I_ who fired on your ship," The Thorian's asari clone spoke with its multi-harmonic voice. "These people had nothing to do with it. I didn't know there was a difference between your ship and the one from Geth. They were both only flying things that spawned enemies. I know better now."

Fai Dan seemed uncomfortable with the Thorian's presence. Lizbeth and her mother were fascinated. Ethan Jeong seemed downright terrified. And Shiala, she… her body language spoke something else entirely. The asari commando then turned her attention to the two Commanders speaking up:

"We have spent a bit of time speaking of what is going to happen now," she said. "I have already assured the colonists that the Thorian will not wish for conflict with them. I think that we will be able to find a very decent solution for us all that doesn't include any conflicts."

"Oh, believe me, Commander," Fai Dan spoke up empathically, "we know that we would stand to lose a lot if we were to fight the Thorian. But there will be a lot of people who will feel angry and violated for a long time."

"Have any voiced their desire to leave?" Jaina asked.

Fai Dan shook his head. "This is our home, Commander," he said. "A lot of sweat has been invested into this place. Blood, now, as well. There might be a bumpy ride ahead of us, but we won't give up."

"That's a lot of willpower," Jaina noticed. "Many people would see just an ancient crumbling city."

"We did, too, when we first came all those years ago," he said, then raised his head and looked around the colony, fondness welling up on his face. "But there is something about this place. It's not the residue of Thorian's spores talking, believe me. This place has a soul. We had built it. _Rebuilt it_. We had taken the crumbling remnants and have carved something new out of it. It is ours. It is home."

Marcus raised his head and looked around the colony. For the first time in many hours, he could actually look at the colony and appreciate what he was seeing. For a place that was supposed to be the tomb of an ancient species, the mega-tower and the two smaller towers that rose from its top were teeming with life. Over the massive and monumental walls of concrete, terraced hydroponic farms rose high into the sky, covering the whiteness of stone in a thick carpet of green. Between the compactly arranged prefab housings grew numerous small trees and flowered bushes that were brought from Earth. And most important of all, the once-crumbling ancient towers and structures showed clear evidence of restoration in many places.

"I can see what you mean," Marcus said. "It would be a shame for this place to be gone."

"I will assist the colonists," the Thorian said through the clone. "The deeper knowledge of the outer universe is new to me. I wish to help and provide in exchange for that."

Lizbeth Baynham spoke up: "This will be an amazing scientific opportunity," she said excitedly, then stammered, "that is, if the Thorian allows."

"The walking beasts of this world had always poked my vines and ate of my fruit," the Thorian spoke. "I had always allowed it. When they die, I consume their remains. That is how it is and has always been. I will allow you to take of my fruit as well. You may go and look everywhere; I have my protection if you overstep," and the clone turned its head to look at the giant juggernauts.

"There's just one more problem," Marcus spoke sternly, turning to Jeong. "Where does the ExoGeni stand now?"

Jeong fidgeted nervously.

"The company has already declared that it is shutting us down," he said. "The funds are already being rerouted to other projects, and the personnel will too, once the HR determines where best to put them."

"Oh, yeah?! Well, fuck that!" Lizbeth exclaimed angrily. "I'm not letting them _put me_ anywhere! Consider this my resignation! I'm going freelance."

Jeong sighed. "The company is probably trying to try to make it seem as if nothing ever happened here; trying to make it seem as if they never knew what was happening."

Marcus narrowed his eyes. "Are they, now?" he asked with an ominous promise seeping into his voice.

"Are you telling me they want to sweep this under the rug and act as if they _didn't_ intentionally break several of Alliance's and Galactic civil rights laws?!" Jaina growled like a lioness.

Jeong gulped. "There's nothing I can do!" he squealed. "I'm just one man! If I try to testify, an "accident" will happen to me quicker than you can say "chimichanga"!"

"Oh, you won't need to testify to anything!" Marcus growled firmly. "Who's your boss?"

"I… It's Alexander Johansen," he stammered. "Alexander Christian Johansen."

Marcus tapped his omni-tool and activated his Spectre info requisition. Only a few moments later, a picture of a classy-looking man in his thirties popped up.

"It says here he's the CEO of ExoGeni," Marcus said. "That him?"

Jeong nodded quickly. "Yeah. I wasn't a big fish, but the structure for this project was such that I took my orders directly from the big boss. Wh-why? What're you going to do?"

"I'm going to have a brief talk with Mr. Johansen," Marcus said. "I am going to make sure that what happened to this colony never happens with any other colony ever again."

He then turned to Jaina. "We're going."

The two soldiers walked away from the slightly bewildered people and went toward the docks. They were the last ones in and, just as they entered, the orders for liftoff were given. As the Normandy rose into the air, they passed the group of SSV Athens's relief shuttles that was descending toward the colony in an ordered formation. With a final glance at the tactical display screen, Marcus nodded in satisfaction. Things were looking up for Zhu's Hope, and things were looking up for their mission against Saren, too. Time would only tell whether the Thorian would be a true boon, but as things were going, there was nothing but good to be seen.

.

* * *

 **Thank you all, for your positive feedback. Leave more reviews so that my rating can grow! Yeah, I know, this'd make me look as if I'm hoarding reviews for the sake of fame - but can you blame me? I mean - it's a good, story, no? I think I stand a chance to eventually enter the top 50 when it comes to favs/follows or sumthin' like that. What do you think?**

 **.**


	16. Chapter 16 - The Mind Meld

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _ **Sorry for a bit of a delay in posting this chapter. It was already written, but I didn't feel that it was good enough, so I made a conscious decision to rewrite it. I had always driven myself with the adage that Quality beets Speed, which means that I feel it is more important to enjoy the creation.**_

 _ **I loved the reviews! I hope there's more!**_

 _ **And to answer**_ _ **DocKucCRO, since he posted as a guest – No, Jaina does not get to be indoctrinated on the basis of her eyes being cybernetically enhanced – and yes, they're merely cybernetically enhanced for the purposes of her infiltration specialization, not fully artificial.**_

 _ **Besides, I refuse to use the theory that just because you have implants in your body, you're bound to get indoctrinated. I mean, come on, people, if the indoctrination worked solely because you have electro-mechanic implants in your body, a mere high-end pacemaker would spell your doom!**_

 _ **And yes, I have the fully-developed theory on how the indoctrination works, which I will use in this work when the time comes much later on.**_

 _ **And don't forget those reviews! :-)**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 10.2.2017.**_

 _ **Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult themes._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 16 – The Mind Meld**

.

Marcus headed directly toward the comm room without even removing any of his gear. He tapped a few keys on the console and waited. Less than a minute later, the holographic projectors activated, and all three of the Councilors appeared.

"Commander Shepard," Tevos greeted him. "We had received information several hours ago of the Geth attack on Feros."

"What is the situation, Shepard?" Sparatus asked.

"The situation has been resolved, Councilors," he spoke. "The Geth have been defeated, and the colony has been saved."

"Those are excellent news!" Tevos replied.

"Have you found the Cipher artifact the Saren was after?" Valern queried.

"I did," he replied. "But Cipher is not a Prothean artifact. It's an information repository on the Protheans that was stored within a sapient alien life form that is endemic to Feros. We're dealing with the First Contact scenario here, Councilors."

"A sapient life form on Feros," Tevos repeated in wonder. "That _is_ an important piece of news, Commander."

"Strange," Valern commented. "How is it possible that these Feros natives escaped the Council's detection when Feros was explored all those centuries ago?"

"It's not natives we're talking about," Marcus said. "It's a plant."

"A plant?!" Sparatus exclaimed in skepticism.

"A single, millions of years old, fully sentient and highly intelligent plant, whose neural tendril network spans the entire continent at the very least and which has the capability analogous to that of asari melding, as well as significant mind controlling abilities via airborne spores, irrelevant of the species. It is called the Thorian."

The Councilors were looking at him dumbfounded, their eyes wide, and mouths consciously kept shut. Tevos was the first to recover after she swallowed a lump.

"Was the First Contact peaceful?" she asked tentatively.

"As of now – yes," Marcus said. "The ExoGeni corporation discovered it some months ago, directly underneath Zhu's Hope colony, and decided to cover it up and use colonists as lab rats. I have taken actions to right the wrong, and the Thorian has agreed to release the colonists and cooperate with us."

"Thank the Goddess," Tevos visibly relaxed.

"Indeed," Sparatus said gravely. "But this Thorian is still a great threat if it can really control minds. Contingencies need to be considered."

"Your only viable contingency would be to burn half of a garden world with still barely explored Prothean ruins, Councilor," Marcus said pointedly, glaring at him. "You might temporarily lobotomize the Thorian by killing its brain, but one of its numerous ganglia would reform into a new brain in a couple thousand years. Frankly, I don't understand why you're so keen to treat it as a hostile if it has expressed its peaceful intentions in the end, but if you do, then you better be prepared to destroy an entire planet."

"Nobody is taking any hostile actions against a species this unique," Tevos said firmly with a sideways cutting motion. The turian shut his mouth stoically.

"You said that this Thorian had Cipher on him, Commander?" Valern asked, taking his chance. "You said it's an information repository?"

Marcus nodded. "The Cipher is a… genetic information on the Protheans – basically a psychic imprint of a Prothean's own neural network that the Thorian had possessed, which is needed for the beacon imprints to be understandable. Saren was after this. He got it. But Thorian gave it to me, as well, via Thorian's own mind meld."

"Was it effective?" Tevos asked after a moment of processing.

"Yes, all things considered," Marcus replied. "The way I understand, my own neural pathways need to reconfigure to resemble those of a Prothean in order for me to understand Prothean beacons. The time is needed for it to settle in properly, but I can say for sure that information is already becoming clearer by the hour. Saren did not get the Cipher directly from the Thorian, but via poly-meld through asari that served him. Thorian declared its way as more efficient."

"And what about Saren now?" Sparatus asked.

"He has disappeared," Marcus replied. "Pursuit was impossible. His dreadnought, dubbed the Sovereign, has shown its firepower. It is beyond impressive. No information on his intention was uncovered. I am going to need everything that can be found on Saren. Any shred of information."

"Our agents are still investigating on anything pertaining to Saren," Sparatus said. "But the investigations have come to a great snag."

"It is as you have feared, Commander," Valern said. "Our investigating agents have confirmed that Saren had set up a huge amount of assets outside of the Citadel Space – something which we hadn't expected, and thus have no proper means of investigating."

"We will forward everything we have of whatever we do manage to find as soon as possible," Sparatus said.

"And may I say it was a great accomplishment with the Thorian, Commander," Valern added. "Studying it will be most interesting."

"Be careful what you consider under "studying", Councilor," Marcus said dryly. "Thorian can spawn walking soldiers from its plant mass in a matter of seconds. Read the report I will be sending you, and watch the cam recordings before you decide anything. The Thorian is more alien than you realize. Walking into this with your usual approach will not work."

Valern blinked, then nodded. "I will look forward to that report, then, Commander," he said sincerely.

"Is there be anything else, you need to say, Commander?" Tevos asked.

"Just a heads-up: I will be heading directly to Earth to settle the incident the ExoGeni has caused."

"Are you sure? It would be simpler to leave it to the diplomats."

"With all due respect, Councilors, but these are private corporations, not Systems Alliance, and I know how to make sure that no other breach of this type of Galactic Civil Rights occurs ever again."

"Very well, Commander," Tevos said. "Good hunting."

With that, she ended the comm.

"So – Earth?" Jaina asked from behind him. She had entered the room just a few moments ago.

"Yeah," he replied as they moved out onto the crew deck. "Gear down, then we will meet up with Liara."

"The meld?" Jaina asked.

"I'd like you to be there," he replied simply.

"Whatever you need," she stated, to what he nodded.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, the Normandy was putting a good distance between them and the Theseus system. The safety of the ship at FTL was enough to melt the pressure of the tumultuous day, and the ground team crew felt as cozy as sugar cubes in water. Marcus, however, had one more thing to do for the day.

"So, how is this supposed to work, Liara?" he asked as Jaina and Liara walked with him into the med bay. The place was empty, save for the three of them. Doctor Chakwas had retreated, opting to give them some privacy for the sake of the peace of mind.

"You don't need to do anything, Commander," she said as she walked to the center of the room, then turned toward him. "It is the asari that does all the work. You don't need to brace yourself for anything. There will be no pain, there will be no pressure; you don't even have to _think_ about anything. All you have to do is trust me."

"Fair enough," he said. "So, do we sit, or…"

"Standing, just like this, will be the most comfortable," Liara said, taking a tentative step into his personal space. "The meld will be exceptionally short – a few seconds, no more – but it will feel as though minutes had passed."

He nodded, spreading his arms. "Well, whenever you're ready," he said.

Liara nodded and raised her hands, touching the sides of his head.

"Relax, Commander," she said before closing her eyes and expanding her mind.

Their minds touched and Liara gently went forth to seek entrance. Instead, she met resistance. It was not conscious of him – he really did want to let her in, she felt it clearly; it's just that something else had shaken him up very recently, and his sub-conscious mind was all over the place. This couldn't do. Working on a hunch, she followed the chaotic threads and explored the cause of it… There!

She knew what to do now.

She broke the short-lived attempt at meld, opening her eyes and sharing a look with him, peering into his eyes searchingly. All she saw was a rock solid gaze. He didn't even realize how troubled he felt deep inside, she realized.

"Well?" Jaina asked eagerly from the side.

"We couldn't meld properly," Liara said, lowering her hands from his head and sending him a compassionate smile he didn't know what was for. "Your mind isn't quite at the properly relaxed state, I'm afraid."

"I was as calm as it could get," he said.

"Calm – yes, but not _relaxed_. There's a difference," she pointed out.

"Well… could you perhaps push through that obstacle?" he asked.

Liara raised her eyebrows in surprise before she slowly tilted her head in acquiescence.

"It is very much possible to do that, yes," she said reluctantly. "I could… force the meld and… _make_ it arrange itself properly but such a thing would be very uncomfortable for you to the point of pain."

"Not a problem!"

"And it would basically make me feel like the filthiest of rapists."

"Oh…" He looked chastised. "Sorry, Liara,"

"It's forgiven," she said instantly, then turned to Jaina with a contemplative smile. "In fact… I think I might know how to solve that problem. Commander Jaina? Could I confer with you for a moment?"

"Anything," Jaina replied, stepping up from where she leaned against the med table.

The two of them moved to the other side of the medbay, out of his earshot.

"I know what the problem is," Liara spoke conspiratorially. "Marcus is still shaken up by the encounter that _you_ have had with the Sovereign. He is not aware of it, but I have recognized it as clearly in that short meld as I look at you now."

Jaina raised her eyebrows in surprise, then cast a quick, worried glance his way.

"Are you sure?" she asked uncertainly. "He doesn't look like it and I'm alive and well…"

She trailed off when she saw Liara sagely shake her head, smiling.

"It is not what it is consciously, but what it is in _here_ ," she said, touching Jaina's chest with her fingertips. "It is about what it is subconsciously. Have you ever had an experience that while not that scary, was sufficiently shocking that you had dreams about it? It's these dreams I'm talking about. They're not really scary; they're more of an annoying nuisance. Yet they still shake you up a bit at night. And then, it feels good for… someone to hold you close. Doesn't it?"

"Yeah…" Jaina said as realization dawned on her. "It kinda does, doesn't it?"

Liara nodded. "This is what I'm talking about. He needs you, Jaina. He doesn't realize it consciously, but his body and mind _crave you_ – your touch. You two had had to keep up a façade of a pair of professional soldiers and hadn't so much as touched one another since early in the morning, not even after we returned from Feros. We, sentient creatures, can't work like that. We need hugs. We need to hold each other tightly to reassure one another. That is the best medicine there is."

Jaina pursed her lips in an attempt to force a smile down. "You know, for someone as young as you're claiming to be, you're surprisingly wise, aren't you, Doctor T'Soni?" she chided good-naturedly.

Liara grinned broadly, her gaze darting down bashfully.

"But you're right," Jaina said, then stole a quick glance at Marcus from the corner of her eye. "I didn't realize how it must've been for him. Ah, that poor oaf of mine. He must've been worried sick."

Liara giggled once before growing somber.

"I suggest we try this another time, Jaina," she said reluctantly after a moment. "We should do this after you two have had some… private time for yourselves."

"No," Jaina said quickly, taking Liara's hands into her own before she smiled conspiratorially. "No… I have a better idea. Listen… I know how to make him as loose as putty. You will be my winggirl on this. Okay?"

Finding herself at the spot, Liara could only nod slowly.

"Good. Now, here's what we're gonna do…"

The two women spent a few more moments conversing quietly with a muffled giggle or two before they turned and slowly crossed the span of the medbay back to Marcus who was leaning back against the medical bed with his hands crossed over his chest.

"You know," he spoke up jokingly as they entered the earshot, "when two or more females conspire like that, it brings up a bunch of red warning lights in the man's head. I had an urge to storm in and break up their little herd."

"Well, unfortunately for you, you haven't, which means you've already fallen deeply and firmly into our nefarious trap," Jaina declared as she walked around him, taking him by the left hand and leading him around the bed to its side, just as Liara encouraged him to follow by holding him by the bicep.

"Should I be worried?" he joked as he looked to both of the smiling women's faces.

"Not really," Jaina quipped as she hopped on the medical bed, sitting on the edge with her legs dangling over the edge and spread her knees, motioning at him invitingly. "Come over here now, big guy," she said more softly.

He hesitatingly turned his back on her and then felt Liara's hands on his abdomen, the young asari pushing him gently but firmly back toward Jaina. Her reassuring smile made him yield, and he let himself be led back until he felt his wife's arms sliding under his arms and around his torso, embracing him in a reassuring hug.

"There we go," she purred softly against his ear as she pulled herself up to his back and held him tightly. With her legs on either side of him and Liara stepping up close in front of him with a tight-lipped mysterious smile and a pair of blue radiant eyes, there was really nowhere else for him to go.

"There – see?" she said right next to his ear. "Like I said, you're trapped."

"Trapped between two beautiful women?" he pondered. "Can't see the downside."

"Mhm! That was us distracting you," she murmured as she began slowly massaging the back of his neck and his temples.

"That so?" He slowly leaned back into her grasp, appreciating her touch. "And from what might I ask?"

"Everything," she murmured as she felt him giving in to her ministrations.

He chuckled lightly as he relaxed, enjoying the sense of her front pressing into his back, her hands at his neck and head, and Liara's hands on his abdomen where she stood mere inches in front of him.

"You know, I could get used to this," he commented, smirking, his speech beginning to slur as his eyes closed down.

"Isn't that the point?" Liara said from closely in front of him, her voice having that naturally husky flavor.

"Hmm," he managed, the only remaining facilities in his mind dedicated to solely enjoying the moment.

"There we go," Jaina cooed right next to his ear. "I want you to think about there being no more Reapers… no more Thorian… no more Council or Spectres, no more battles… There's just us, the three people exploring something new and amazing, without a worry in the universe. And all is right in the world."

Marcus tried to repeat their little adage, but the massage and Jaina's soothing voice in his ear had melted his mind into a gooey state. All he could do was grunt in appreciation of what the woman was doing.

Jaina grinned happily in satisfaction, nodding at Liara. The young asari had been observing everything in amazed rapture, her eyes wide and attentive, her cheeks lightly blushing, her smiling lips slightly parted.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment as she sank back into the absolute calmness. Her hands rose to Marcus's head as Jaina's retreated lower to keep massaging his neck, and she planted her fingers on the sides. The calm and relaxed expanse of Marcus's mind greeted her.

"That's good, Commander," Liara said. "Relax – just like that – and embrace eternity."

Their minds flared and expanded like a supernova, merging into a whole new state of expanded senses.

They felt their focus enhance, sharpen, their capacities, logic, and reasoning empowered beyond any measure. Their speed of thought and understanding exploded, the world around them coming to a grinding halt as their neurons flared like a trillion tiny suns, bringing a sensation of ultimate rush and power.

And it became clear to them in that instant that it was not two minds melded together. It was three.

The two, distinctly female minds were locked in a gentle embrace around the third, distinctly male mind, all three of them forming a single, thriving mass of psychic potential. It empowering. It felt good. It felt really, _really good_.

But how?

Liara, the main carrier of the meld tried to err on the side of caution to end the strange meld, but Marcus didn't let her. Before she could retreat, a primal, dominant part of his mind seized her firmly in place, and Jaina's fiery presence caught her in a firm embrace and urged her with a gentle mental caress to stay.

And Liara yielded, all too eagerly.

For a long, frozen moment, the three minds just toughed, feeling, sensing and familiarizing with one another, spreading their thought tendrils through each other like the small, tentative tongue kisses.

Liara's mind was cautious on the outside, forcibly calm, yet a sparkling, vibrant presence, full of energy was piercing through the outer shell. Determination. Potential. Immense strength.

To him, Jaina's mind was like a living fire, strong and energetic, warm and nurturing, passionate and unyielding, all of it revolving around a core of steel. She was to him in here, like he knew her out there.

Sensing these two women like this made him want to stay here forever. It felt _that_ good. And due to the meld, he sensed that the two of them felt the same way.

But he had a job to do.

Focusing inward, he turned to the memories and imprints of the Prothean Beacon.

The chaotic mass of images and imprints swirled like a galaxy-sized swarm of jigsaw puzzle pieces. There, underneath it, though, lied a framework that the Cipher had placed on him. Some imprints had already landed into their rightful place.

Now, though, the moment the three of them focused their combined psychic powers on it, the swarm first exploded, and then began to coalesce.

As the first images and sounds found their rightful places, the coalescence began to accelerate, the complete images and memories driving the process behind them, forcing the spiral to congregate, and the full transfer of data to emerge, focused and superbly clear in its presence.

And the three of them witnessed the emergence of the clear and uncorrupted form.

The War. The tactical data.

The galaxy map spun slowly, showcasing Prothean worlds with surprising clarity, many of which nobody yet knew of. The tactical view showed the increasing tide of red sectors, marked with silhouettes of Reapers above them. Marcus recognized the oddity of the encroaching enemy: it didn't start from outside of the Prothean borders, but from the inside, dead center, where the image of the Citadel spanned. A transmission filled their ears, in which the frantic voice of a Prothean yelled in what to Marcus like some African accent:

" _They had taken over the Citadel! We never saw them coming! The Prime Fleet has been obliterated within minutes of the first exchange. They have acquired all the data of our planets, census, defenses, communication protocols, all of our executive codes – everything that the Citadel had. There are hundreds of thousands of them, they are spreading strategically outward system-by-system, and they cannot be stopped. Listen to me, it was not the Inusannon, it was them that had constructed the mass relay network, and they know how to control it. They CANNOT BE STOPPED!"_

Another set of images.

War footage: Prothean warships – white, cylindrical vessels with star-shaped rings encircling their girth – fighting against the multitude of Sovereign-class Reapers; the green particle beams of the Prothean vessels against the much more powerful molten metal red beams of the Reapers. The tactical data report showed the stark inferiority of Prothean particle weapons' range compared to Reapers' hybrid guns, and how Reapers utilized this brutally.

The war on the ground.

Smaller types of Reapers destroying Prothean ground troops. Diverse alien species could be seen constituting the Prothean army, all losing against the unstoppable onslaught; onslaught brought forth by Prothean's own people that betrayed them, now transformed into synthetic monstrosities. The images showed the influence of Reaper mind control. It showed how Reapers changed their victims, forcibly convinced them to abandon their proverbial humanity and become veritable machine husks and genetically engineered drones. Thousands of Protheans could be seen writhing in pods and on top of metal spikes the likes of which they saw on Eden Prime, as their flesh and organs were being infused and supplanted by synthetic parts by the microscopic nanite processes.

No matter how fiercely they fought – and fought fiercely they did – and no matter how advanced their weapons were compared to today's species, the Protheans were losing on all fronts. Bit by bit, system by system, planet by planet; until nothing remained, except one.

The last imprint showed a great, self-sufficient research outpost, secret and hidden since before the Reapers invaded. It showed how the heads of the outpost read the reports of the Reaper invasion and decided to hide in the vast bunkers in order to weather the storm, undiscovered by the Reapers. Hundreds of thousands of them entered advanced cryo-stasis pods and slept for hundreds of years, tasking a single VI to wake them up when the Reapers left. The task report showed how the energy levels were drained. Resources were being brought to their limit until the VI began to perform triage and shut down the pods of less essential personnel until only several dozen of top scientists remained after the Reapers had retreated _**through the Citadel relay**_ , and into the dark space between galaxies.

The final imprint.

It explained that the secret project that the outpost had researched was the mass effect relay technology. It detailed the last act of defiance of the remaining Prothean scientists. It detailed them using the prototype mass relay, codename: Conduit, to enter the Citadel at the mass relay monument, and disrupt the Reaper's control of the station so it cannot properly open into the dark space. It showed the location of the world where the project "Conduit" was located at. Its name: Ilos.

The expanse of the three joined consciousness stood for a moment there, before they came to a mutual agreement to end the connection.

Liara's consciousness began to float away, distancing itself rapidly, the bond gently fading with her. Marcus suddenly became distinctly aware of his body as he was brought back into the confines of his own mind.

He held a dazed Liara in his arms, her forehead resting on his chest as her hands slowly fell from his temples and landed on his shoulders.

The young asari raised her head from his chest and looked up at him wide-eyed. He could see it clearly in her eyes: amazement, consternation, excitement, confusion. Arousal.

"By the Goddess!" Liara gasped breathily as she slowly pushed herself off of Marcus's chest.

"You alright?" he asked as he held her up.

Liara just nodded, speechless.

"Did that just happen?" Marcus asked, looking back at Jaina.

She was beaming back at him and down at Liara. "Sure did," she said breathily, then turned to Liara. "Thanks for bringing me along for the ride, Liara. That was definitely one of the topmost amazing experiences I've ever had!"

"That wasn't my doing," the asari replied in confusion as she looked from one human to another, slowly extricating herself from Marcus's grasp. "I don't know what happened."

"That was not the poly-meld you mentioned that Shiala did with Thorian and Saren?" he asked in bewilderment.

"Ah… no," Liara said as she raised her hand to her head crest. "The poly-meld requires me touching both of you, and working to keep the meld with the both of you, but that was not the case here. This was… easy… I felt us fall into this as naturally as if it was merely a single meld. I… I don't know how what happened between us was possible."

Jaina hopped down lithely from the medical bed and stepped up to Liara, taking her gently by the shoulders.

"First tell me are you feeling okay?" she demanded gently.

"Okay?" Liara laughed through a gasp. "I feel amazing! I feel revitalized. This was more than just a memory sharing meld."

"Good," Jaina smiled. "Because the sensation is mutual here," and she turned to look at Marcus, who nodded.

"Maybe it was because of the Cipher," Marcus proposed. "The Thorian's mind meld might have been completely different, and might have left traces of something that triggered this."

"That…" Liara started, "yes, that actually seems plausible! I… wow…"

"It enabled all of us to see the Eden Prime imprint," Jaina said.

"And what a terrifying discovery it is," Liara said shakily, remembering what she saw as she sat back against a lab desk and crossed her hands, holding herself tightly. "To find out that the Protheans had died in such… monstrous way. That such a thing was done to them…" she looked up, and pain and sorrow could be seen in her eyes. "Fifty years of archaeological research, hoping to find the reason for their extinction, hoping for even a glimpse of their lost technology… and now I got it. And I dread to think that even such an advanced species was defeated so one-sidedly by monsters that lurk in the dark that we never even suspected were there."

Jaina immediately stepped in close to Liara's side, touching the young asari's shoulder and the middle of her back supportively, the aftereffect of the meld making her exceptionally touchy-feely.

Marcus spoke up:

"You might think that your work on the Protheans might be for naught now, but you fail to realize that it's only the beginning," he said somberly. Liara raised her crystal blue eyes to look up at him hopefully as he continued:

"The Protheans are just a part of a larger mystery. They didn't create the Reapers. Somebody before them did – just like we theorized back on Feros. They didn't create the mass effect relays, but the Reapers did – or they were created by the very first species that the Reapers came from. You told us when we first met, Liara, that there is a cycle of extinction in the Galaxy, and that you had firmly believed it to be true when no one else did. Our task now is to seek for the slivers of information from the ages past, to seek and find anything that may help us find the way to stop the Reapers from doing to us what they did to the Protheans."

Liara straightened up, a new glow of determination showing in her eyes.

"Thank you, Commander," she said slowly. "I needed that."

"What are friends for," Jaina spoke up with a warm smile. "I have a feeling that it's time for our young Doctor T'Soni to rise up from archaeological dirt and take the bull that is the academic society by the horns, and direct it to find the information for her; for us."

"And I know just where to start," Liara declared in sudden revelation, eagerly turning toward Jaina and pointing a finger at her. "The world we saw in the shared experience."

"Ilos," Marcus said. "The resting place of the Conduit. That mass relay leads straight into the one on the Citadel."

"And everybody thinks it's just a monument," Jaina said incredulously, then looked at Liara. "How come nobody ever noticed this? Some kind of energy readings must've been noticed."

"Hardly," Marcus shook his head. "Remember Charon relay? It didn't radiate any energy whatsoever until they activated it. But that aside, I'm more worried as to the reason why Saren wants the Conduit."

"A back door that nobody is even aware exists," Jaina spoke his thoughts. "It has to have something to do with opening the Citadel to the dark space. He must have the information on what he needs to enable it."

"And we must find what it is, and counter it," Marcus nodded. "The information we need just might be located on the planet Ilos. The imprint held the instructions on which relays to take to get there."

"I'm afraid it is not that simple, Commander," Liara spoke up as she took a few steps around in contemplative thought. "The archaeological community has known of Ilos for some time, now. Coordinates were found in the same cache of data that held the coordinates to Feros, Aketan, and Nodaka, to name a few. However, the only way to Ilos is through the Mu relay, and the system that held the Mu relay went supernova about four thousand years ago. The relay is believed to be intact since few things can damage a relay, but the blast has thrown it out of orbit and into deep space. Nobody knows its exact trajectory."

"That is good, then," Jaina stated. "It means Saren doesn't know its location, either."

"Unless he found a way to find it," Marcus pointed out.

"Hardly," Liara said. "The region of space where the Mu relay was is the Shastan Cluster. That part of the galaxy was the Rachni territory. None of them are left to tell the tale."

"Maybe, but Saren doesn't strike me as the type of guy to let something like that stop him," Marcus said, then added, "I wouldn't let it stop me."

"Well, be that as it may, I think this puts us many steps ahead of Saren," Liara pointed out. "Your Cipher is now – well, deciphered! We have the location, and we know what Saren is planning in the first place."

"Right," Jaina said, enthusiasm seeping into her voice. "We can warn the Council now of Saren's plans. We can warn them that the relay monument is actually a small relay and that the Citadel is…" She trailed off, raising her eyes to meet Marcus's. "They're never gonna believe any of this, are they?"

"Not a snowball's chance in Hell," Marcus replied grimly.

"There has to be something!" Liara declared vehemently, turning her head sharply to the side, thinking hard.

"Small steps," Marcus cautioned. "They'll never believe the Citadel is, in fact, a gigantic mass relay, and even if they did, they'd never evacuate. I know exactly what would happen. They'd say that evacuating the whole station is unfeasible and that it'd cause a major political and economic destabilization, and the rule of the modern world is that money makes the rules." He shook his head. "Uh-uh… they won't do squat even if the Reapers were to pop on top of them and start towing the Citadel off with them.

"However," he continued, "we might be able to convince them to check out the "relay monument" if we say that we have the info that it is an actual miniaturized mass relay. They might put enough of an itch for them to want to send their research teams."

"That might work," Jaina acquiesced. "We contact them as soon as we exit in Hercules and find ourselves a comm buoy, then?"

Marcus nodded. Jaina sighed and rubbed her temples as she sat back against the med bed.

"Ugh, I hate politicians," she said. "Why can't they ever be pragmatic and simple?"

"They wouldn't get any voters," Marcus said dryly, to what all three people chuckled.

Liara spoke up, "Still, to think that a discovery this great might be buried under layers of bureaucracy…"

"It was some discovery alright," Jaina said as she leaned back with her hands against the medical bed. "And to become one of the people who truly know what happened with the beacon."

She then squinted at Liara through her auburn bangs, a bewildered smile spread across her lips. "And you're sure that kind of meld was never done by asari?"

"I wish I knew the reason as to why it truly happened, Commander," Liara said sincerely. "I wonder if it would ever be possible to repeat something like that." Corners of her lips turned up into a smile as she looked down. "I… have to admit that the experience was… perhaps the most beautiful and exhilarating melding experience that I have ever had. At least to me."

"Then the feeling is mutual," Jaina said, smiling.

"And… you're not offended… or feel violated by being pulled into a meld against your will?"

"Hah-are you kidding?!" Jaina declared effervescently, hopping up from where she leaned and cupped Liara by the cheeks with both of her hands. "That meld was one of the most amazing experiences for both me _and_ Marcus. We are not offended, and we are not reserved in any way. That was an amazing adventure between three friends, and if I'd ever get the chance to do it again, I'd hop right on that train without a second's hesitation! I say it, and I know that Marcus would say it – if he wasn't trying to act the tough, unmoving commanding officer of the most advanced warship in the Alliance Fleet, that is," she snarked teasingly at him.

Marcus crossed his arms over his chest, the smirk managing to fight its way onto the corner of his lips before he made a small, conspicuous wink at the giggling Liara whose cheeks were now released by Jaina.

"Thank you for feeling that way, Commander –"

"Jaina," the woman interrupted her. "Call me Jaina, and call him Marcus from now on. We're friends here. And it kinda helps the confusion as to who you're addressing."

"Hah… no argument there," Marcus declared wryly.

Liara smiled. "Then, thank you for feeling that way, Jaina," she said. "I'm glad you don't see the meld like many of the younger asari do – a means of gratification. It always was and always will be a special thing to me. I am glad we could share one form of it. And since the both of you are interested, then, maybe… when this frantic chase ends we could…"

"Yes," Jaina nodded. "We will."

Liara's eyes lit up brightly, and she nodded.

"Now, I think that it was enough excitement for one day," Jaina declared. "How about all of us retreat to the privacy of our rooms and get some shuteye."

The three people bid each other goodbye and went their separate ways, sending fleeting glances to each other as they went their way – Liara into the chamber adjacent to the med bay, and Marcus and Jaina onto the crew deck and toward their chambers, completely uncaring if any of the crew noticed the XO frequenting the CO's cabin; hell, they probably assumed everything anyway.

As the doors to the captain's cabin closed behind them, Marcus breathed a sigh of relief as he reached out and touched Jaina's hand.

A brief, murky swirl of moving images flashed in front of him. He was on the Normandy's Command Platform, and the tactical display showed a glaring red beam lancing from above and narrowly missing the Normandy before he heard Jaina's voice from his throat: " _Dive!_ "

The images flashed and dissipated in a fraction of a second as if nothing had ever happened.

He shook off the weird sensation and pulled Jaina into him, and they shared a long, loving kiss. They rested their foreheads against each other and just enjoyed the tight hug.

"I was worried about you," he said. "I saw Sovereign's beam slice through that ancient Prothean tower from the distance. I knew it was you that it was targeting."

"Me? Stopped by something as insignificant as the death ray? Pffft!" she chuckled. "Besides, you're not getting rid of me that easily, buster."

He laughed. "Glad to hear it," he replied. He kissed her again, and then gave her a mock frown: "Mm, by the way – you seem to be anting up your resolution to seduce Liara."

"Yes," was a deadpan response, and she poked a finger into his chest in a mock-stern way. "And there's nothing you get to say about it."

"Oh, really," he challenged as he pulled her in tighter against him.

"Really," Jaina spoke with a sincere voice, not challenging back. "She's beautiful, smart like hell, and she's a wonderful being with whom you'd love to do more than just bang. Don't tell me you haven't noticed what she is like."

"Oh, I've noticed," he said. "Not that I'd mind having a pair of amazing, beautiful women at my sides… but it's not like I'm going to do anything about it when I have _this_ woman," and there he squeezed her flanks possessively.

"Well, that's why you have _me_ to do it for you," she spoke as she hugged him around the neck.

"However," he said with a serious tone, "You will do nothing that will compromise this ship's operational capacity. The crew knows the two of us are sleeping together; even if we didn't they'd assume we did, so no point in hiding that… and you will most certainly do _nothing_ if Liara is not responsive to it."

"Oh, she's responsive, alright," Jaina said as she slowly pushed him backwards deeper into the room. "Haven't you seen how she looks at you? She has looked at you in that way since the day one. And before in the med bay, when we all somehow melded, I could sense it all in her as she watched your presence in that meld-scape. She was amazed, enraptured…"

They reached the bed's footing, and Jaina pushed him powerfully, and he landed on his back, sprawling across the bed.

He looked up at her in a pleasant surprise and saw her looking down at him from behind her auburn bangs, the hunger in her misted eyes radiating outward. She bit her lip and lowered herself onto the bed slowly, prowling forward on her hands and knees over him until she straddled his groin and pinned his hands against the bedding.

She ground her hot core against his hardening member as she spoke:

"You should have seen yourself in there," she all but gasped out. "To see yourself like Liara and I could see you."

"What was I like?" he asked, prompting her knowingly to let herself go.

Jaina growled, then purred.

"You. Were. Indomitable," she said, then dove into a deep and hungry kiss.

Time ceased and everything else faded away. All that remained were two lovers in the throes of passion, and carnal desire the only way for them to alleviate the aching need for each other. The only things that existed in the world were hot gasps and warm sweaty bodies that writhed in ecstasy long into the night.

* * *

Liara locked the only entrance into her appropriated chamber after she had returned from her evening shower. She removed her clothes, remaining only in a pair of white lacy panties before she threw on an old, comfy t-shirt she used as sleepwear.

She lied down on her bed and took a slow and deep, calming breath. Then another. And another, still. And despite her best meditation techniques, she couldn't get it out of her mind.

She sighed heavily as her thoughts were pulled back to the memory of the earlier meld she had with the two humans. _Goddess, with both of them!_ She thought briefly. But even the fact of the unusual nature of the meld couldn't keep her mind from sticking right back to the memory of both Marcus's and Jaina's mental presences.

Liara hugged herself as she lied there, remembering the magnificent presence of Marcus. He was like a powerful, massive volcano – huge as a mountain, immovable and solid like a rock, strong and hard; and underneath that mighty shell, a torrent of contained liquid fire burned. It seeped forth through the small cracks of the mighty rock and bleeding down in glowing rivulets, though – a clear testament of how the fury he fought to contain spilled through the cracks when he fought. But it was on the peak that a gigantic caldera fumed and radiated all of the might that was hidden within, promising certain destruction if it were ever to erupt.

And Jaina. Jaina was like a hurricane of fire that swirled around a solid steel core. But she was not the fire that burned; she was the fire that brought warmth and protection, but that could _utterly incinerate_ if it so desired. It was hot, and wild, and seductive, and in perfect control. And it swirled all around Marcus's mountainous volcanic presence. The two people were so in line with each other, that there seemed nothing in this universe that could oppose them should they so desire.

She realized then the stories she had heard, of how powerful individuals proved to give the greatest of melds due to their personalities, and she wished she could try the true sexual meld. She craved to bask in Marcus's and Jaina's presence so badly.

But she couldn't. Not like a lover. They were spoken to each other. Their friendship would have to do… wouldn't it?

Her mind flashed with an image she had accidentally stumbled onto during the meld – a brief glimpse of the two of them naked in a hotel room, writhing in ecstasy, doing things that… things she never…

Liara's core clenched hard. Before she even realized what she was doing, the covers were thrown off, her t-shirt was pulled and bunched up high, exposing her breasts, and her panties had already slipped down her shapely legs.

She gasped as the cool air licked her exposed skin, her already stiff nipples hardening even more. Her hands glided over her naked body, sending tingling, electrifying shocks into her mind as she writhed to the sensation. A low, involuntary moan escaped her lips, and she grabbed the hem of her shirt, biting it between her teeth to muffle the desperate sound of need from her lips.

Her fingers trailed down to her azure and traced the wet velvety folds as her other hand's fingers played with her nipple, a muffled whimper escaping her lips.

She thought on those two magnificent mental presences that she had seen during the meld as her fingers finally sank into the hot folds of her azure, and she ground the nub of her _luna_ with her palm. She thought of them, desiring to be enveloped and scooped up by the wild fiery hurricane that was Jaina, and to be dunked into the molten caldera that was Marcus's core. She wanted the molten rock to grab her, solidify around her, hold her, keep her trapped, as the wildfire's fiery tongues licked all over and into her helpless body, the two people having their way with her.

Having their way with her…

Her tight, wet core spasmed around her fingers, hard. She exploded in wave after wave of pure, undiluted pleasure. Her mind was a blank slate, a single giant bundle of nerves that tingled and shook her, overtaking every sense for what seemed like a long time.

She came to, breathing hard, and her vision swimming. She hoped to Goddess that she didn't shout out in her ecstasy and be heard, and then hazily remembered that all doors on the Normandy were the soundproofed blast doors. She had enough of remaining facilities to pull up the covering sheet over her naked body before the blissful oblivion enveloped her into a sweet land of restful and content sleep.

* * *

 _._

 _32 hours later;_

 _Earth, Sol System, Local Cluster;_

 _North America West Coast, San Francisco Bay area;_

 _._

"So, the _Project: Thorian_ has been a failure," one of the present men said.

"Not necessarily," the CEO, Alexander Johansen, replied as he sat into the comfy leather chair at the head of the Board table, and took the datapad from the woman who worked as his assistant.

"The Species-37 samples were taken from Feros several weeks prior," he continued. "They were transferred to our facility on Nodacrux, and from there, a number of them were sent to our associates. Now, how did that go?"

The board members turned to the side to look at the holographic projection of a gray-haired, middle-aged man who sat on a chair.

"I'm afraid the venture was not as profitable as we had hoped, Mr. Johansen," the man said as he exhaled a puff of smoke from his cigarette. "The specimens had attacked the scientists, and destroyed our outpost on Binthu."

"The report said they were docile," one of the Board members said dubiously.

"They were," the Hologram Man said as he tapped the ash off of his cigarette, "but whatever happened on Feros has caused the shift in the creatures' demeanor. We believe that the Thorian itself instructed them to attack us via an as-of-yet unknown method of organic-based FTL communication since the attack was remarkably coordinated and efficient at eliminating several of our experienced agents."

"We haven't heard anything about this from our facility on Nodacrux," another member of the Board spoke.

"And you never will," the man replied. "My sources indicate that there already was an outbreak there, as well."

Alexander Johansen took a deep breath, then spoke:

"Well, that is unfortunate. I trust you will remain onboard with our other ventures?" he asked the Hologram Man.

The man took a sip of whiskey on the rocks, then spoke: "The other ventures are not a concern, Mr. Johansen; the fallout and information leak from Feros _is_. I never placed any of my agents there as I received insurances that your people there would be enough. Have I been wrong?"

"I have people doing damage control as we speak," Johansen replied easily, without any concern. "The loyal employees from Zhu's Hope will be transferred to new and isolated locations, while the ones that resigned will be met with accidents should they decide to leave the colony and spread the word. We can expect the political backlash from the Citadel Council, but the matter will not go any further than a formal reprimand and comparatively minor fines. I have given the instructions for the evidence to be fabricated that will make sure that the head of ExoGeni on Feros, Ethan Jeong, is fully marked as a soul orchestrator of the incident, and that he worked without our knowledge. Everything else will be locked in politicking between the Council and Systems Alliance. Therefore, I fully expect –"

The great double entrance doors banged loudly as they were violently flung open, making everyone flinch as their heads whipped toward it.

A tall soldier in black heavy armor with an N7 insignia stepped into the room. A fully armed and armored turian and a krogan stood on either of his sides as the man's icy gaze swept the room, sending chills down everyone's back until it settled on the Hologram Man.

The soldier's icy stare met the cybernetic blue eyes of the powerful mysterious man on the hologram head on and stayed there for a second to drive the point, or maybe just to memorize the mysterious figure's face. And then he turned toward the head of the table.

"Alexander Christian Johansen," the soldier spoke with unblinking firmness, "I am Commander Marcus Shepard of the SSV Normandy. You have been found of intentionally ordering unethical experiments upon the entirety of the Zhu's Hope colony's population, and thus in breach of Galactic Civil Rights Laws in accordance with Section 3. Is there anything you wish to declare?"

Several of the stunned members of the Board worked their jaws in some vain attempt to show their control of the situation.

"Let me handle this," Johansen addressed others, his tone confident and condescending from the very start. He turned to Marcus, projecting a practiced air of superiority as he spoke: "Commander Shepard, for one, I have no idea what you're talking about. Secondly, I will have you know that my lawyers will have a talk with your superiors in the Alliance Navy, and that –"

"'No' it is," Marcus interrupted him firmly, quick-drawing his hand cannon, and sending a heavy shredder round into Johansen's gut with a deafening explosion.

The Board members wailed in terror as they recoiled in their seats.

Marcus ignored them, and instead sent a deadly glare at the beautiful icy-eyed brunette that worked as Johansen's assistant, just daring her to draw the hidden pistol from her business suit.

Johansen, still alive, raised his head shakily from where he was holding his intestines to look disbelievingly at Marcus, all pretenses at some perceived superiority gone as he gaped like a fish.

"Let me introduce myself again since the lot of you obviously considers yourselves too important to watch the everyday news," Marcus said with utter businesslike calmness as if he was preparing lunch. "I am Commander Marcus Shepard of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel Council."

Terrified glances of realization turned his way as heads sunk deeper between their shoulders. Marcus continued:

"I know what ExoGeni did on Feros. I also know that such a thing could not have happened without the majority of you being both aware and supportive of it. Therefore, I will make myself clear: these things, I will not tolerate. Ever.

"As of this moment, you have only one course of action. You will provide full financial support for the continued functioning of the Zhu's Hope colony as a means of reparation, the coverage of all medical expenses that would be warranted due to their situation, as well as a direct financial restitution to each and every one of the colonists in the worth of one year's average Galactic wage.

"You will cease any and all works that are in any way in violation – be it direct or implied – of the Galactic Civil Rights Law, and while you may think that I cannot possibly track whether or not you have actually done so, you also need to realize that I don't have to. Everything comes to the surface sooner or later – and sooner if it crosses my path – and when that happens, I will return. Nothing stays hidden forever. Everyone gets found."

Marcus glanced at Johansen. The man's hands lied limply in his lap with his shredded intestines hanging from the fist-sized hole that ran all the way through, and the lifeless eyes stared at the floor from his hanging head. He was dead, alright.

Marcus then looked to the fake assistant, memorizing the calm features of the professional operative, before he looked one last time at the Hologram Man. He met the blue cybernetic eyes that would have shaken lesser men, noticing the cigarette in the man's fingers had burned without being smoked at all during this time, a long column of ash rising up.

Marcus turned around and left the conference room without a further word, Garrus and Wrex following closely behind. As they walked through the building, numerous employees were standing to the sides in fear or getting out of their way. The security personnel had stood helplessly, the Spectre credentials he had flashed when he first came keeping their hands completely tied.

Wrex laughed out loud when they entered the elevator.

"I haven't had this much fun in years," he said jovially. "You sure know how to negotiate like a krogan, Shepard."

"I'll say," Garrus spoke. "And punishing the superior instead of subordinate? Any turian would applaud you. Why did you insist on bringing me and Wrex for the ride, though?"

"Turians by stereotype still hate humans," Marcus said, "and krogan hate the turian's guts. I am the human that has both a turian professional and a krogan battlemaster working in tandem for him. That means this is more than me just paying them; this is the power you can't buy. They will be intimidated. They will be thinking and fearing of what else I can bring to bear. This was far more effective than if a single Spectre had entered that room."

Wrex turned to look at Garrus.

"Listen to the man, kid," he rumbled. "You might learn something if you take that turian stick out of your ass."

"Shouldn't you be careful about thinking too much, Wrex," Garrus jabbed right back. "Too much brain might crack that thick plate of yours. How're you gonna butt heads?"

"Hahahahahaaaa!" Wrex laughed out loud. "Good. You're learning. We'll remove the good turian outta you yet."

Marcus's crew left the building and entered the skycar, punching in the directions toward the spaceport, when Marcus's omni-tool chimed.

"What is it, Jaina?" he asked.

" _It's Admiral Hackett_ ," she replied. " _I'm patching him through a secure channel to your omni-tool._ "

There was another chime, and Admiral Hackett's gravelly voice came through:

" _Commander Shepard, I understand that you're on Earth?_ " he asked with slight bewilderment.

"Yes, sir," he replied. "The CEO of ExoGeni was progressively working to cause problems for the Systems Alliance. I took care of it."

There was a short pause. " _Took care of it, or took care of it?_ " Hackett asked pointedly.

"I _took care_ of it," Marcus intoned grimly.

There was a long pause.

" _Udina is not going to be happy, Commander, I tell you that_ ," the man said. " _And I don't have the slightest idea as to what the Council will do._ " He then sighed. _"But regardless of that, I'm calling you because we have a problem; the fact that you're on Earth only makes the matter all the more expedient._ "

"I'm listening," Marcus nodded.

" _You know of an Alliance training ground on Luna, I trust?_ "

"The one where we test weapons and tech in live-fire simulations?"

" _The one. One of the VI's we use to simulate enemy tactics in the drills is no longer responding to our override commands. It has gone rogue. Seventeen marines have already been killed before we realized what has happened._ "

"I assume you don't want to just bomb the facility from orbit," Marcus said.

" _It houses too much valuable tech and gear. Shutting down the VI core would be the most beneficial, especially now that we are beginning to shift our economy into military re-armament. You are our best operative, and we know you'd be perfect for this job._ "

"Understood, Admiral," Marcus said. "I'll be at Luna in approximately one hour."

" _Very good, Commander. Fifth fleet out._ "

Marcus shut down the comms and sighed.

"Never a dull moment."

.


	17. Chapter 17 - Illium

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _ **I have left**_ _ **a hint**_ _ **in the previous chapter concerning what Cipher is doing to Marcus's brain. Sure, everybody saw clearly the triple-meld, but though the Cipher is responsible for it, that was not the hint I left and hoped that people would notice.**_

 _ **And the thing is – these changes the Cipher has caused are a pretty big thing that will drive a big part of the story. I mean, I get it – my desire to make it mysteriously intriguing must've caused me to make it too hard to notice, and I expected most people would miss it but… NOBODY?**_

 _ **See? That was what I was hoping to see in the reviews! I really hoped to see that you guys would notice that fine print. It's all in the fine print.**_

 _ **Well... [scratch, scratch]... if that's the case, I guess I can't talk much, but don't come screaming about "whoa, where did that come from" later on when the thing **__**happens, hehehe...**_ **¯\\_(** **ツ** **)_/¯**

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 15.2.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes,_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 17 – Illium**

.

 _24 hours later…_

 _Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula;_

 _Private Council chambers, Citadel Tower;_

 _._

"Have you seen this?" Tevos asked neutrally as she passed the datapad to Sparatus. "I understand that Spectres have the liberty to do anything, but certain finesse should be expected. I can't but wonder if this is his usual MO."

Sparatus raised the datapad and read the article: " _ **The first human Spectre dispensing justice:**_ _sending an ultimatum to the corporate world"_

"Ah, yes, I've read all of the reports on this," Sparatus said empathically. "Punish the superior of the one who did the deed. Good. _Very_ good! Shepard is showing some wisdom."

Tevos looked at him in surprise. "You support him eviscerating a defenseless corporate director? The video recording of the execution has leaked onto the extranet!"

"Yes, I've seen it," Sparatus nodded. "And in fact – yes, I do support what he's done. I see _exactly_ why he did it. The human corporations have been becoming increasingly bold as of late. Secret government agencies performing unethical tests is an evil that will never be eradicated, nor must it ever be, but corporations cannot be trusted with the same thing. With this, Shepard has punched the corporate world in their noses, and told them to thread carefully." He raised the datapad for emphasis. "You may not realize this, but this will send tremors through all of the corporations in the Galaxy, be it human or not. They will see a Council Spectre not being afraid to be as brutal as it gets. This benefits our authority greatly."

"I agree with you, Sparatus, when it comes to putting the wily corporations in their place, but this was a major blow," Tevos said bitterly. "It is already rocking the Galactic economy. The shares and stock index values have already dropped over the board, and the science oriented corporations are registering as far as a two percent drop. Two percent!"

"I understand that you're worried, Tevos, but this is not a problem," Valern spoke for the first time. "I have my people doing statistical analysis, and this economic instability is nowhere near the critical threshold for a true economic crisis. This is just a… wobble."

Tevos clenched her teeth and calmed down.

"You are correct," she said. "But I still don't like it. Blame me for being asari, but we do not like an instability of any kind." She signed and decided to change the subject. "That aside, what are your thoughts on Shepard's report on the Relay Monument?"

"Unsubstantiated," Valern said with a shake of his head. "I've sent a small covert team disguised as tourists to do some unobtrusive scans of the Monument, so as we don't raise the public's suspicion. Nothing had come up on the scans."

"I know salarians have advanced technologies, but a few scans with small tools cannot possibly determine anything for sure," Sparatus said with a frown.

"I agree with Valern," Tevos said. "We have been on the Citadel for millennia now, and the Monument has been an object of intense and focused study many times before. We would have picked something up by now."

"There is a lot of Prothean technology that we still do not understand, Tevos," Sparatus said pointedly, "and mass relays are the foremost in that. I do not feel comfortable to just ignore the potential threat of this magnitude."

"I understand your concerns, Sparatus, but I implore you to think about the bigger picture," Tevos said with her calming voice. "If you start deploying heavily armed personnel around the monument, citizens _will_ start to get worried. And whenever citizens on the _Presidium_ start to become worried – the people who control the Galactic economy, by the way – then, that economy begins to destabilize. It could be the factor to tip the balance with this so-called wobble already in place."

"I have a solution," Valern said, disarming the argument. "I suggest we openly organize a team of experts with heavier research equipment to perform studies of the Relay Monument with "the new technology" in search of clues for knowledge on the Protheans. While I know that nothing new will come up, we can use the distraction to increase C-Sec density on the Presidium – and if someone asks, it is just for science team's security purposes."

Sparatus did not look happy, but he ultimately nodded.

"Good. I will organize my people, then,"Valern said. "Now, what else do we have of importance?"

* * *

.

Marcus stepped up to the console in Normandy's comm room and pressed the blinking button. All three of the Councilors appeared before him.

"Commander Shepard," Tevos greeted him with a nod.

"I hope we're not interrupting any important assignments, Commander," Sparatus spoke up, seeing Marcus wearing full armor.

"Not a problem," he replied. "What can I do for you, Councilors?"

"We have read your intel on the possibility that the Relay Monument is an actual miniature relay," Valern said. "However, none of our scans had shown any clues that would substantiate it."

"You desire proof on my end," Marcus stated.

"On the contrary," Tevos stated. "We have decided to believe you. But while we understand that you would want us to secure the Monument, we are unable to do so. The presence of the troops on the Presidium will –"

She trailed off when she saw Marcus raise his hand to stop her.

"I understand what you're doing," he said, disappointment directed at their actions clear in his voice. "You think this will cause panic among the population."

Tevos spoke up calmingly: "You must understand that –"

"I said I do understand, Councilor," Marcus interrupted her again. "There's an old saying on Earth: money makes the world go around. You are worried about destabilization caused by the worried citizens and have decided to do nothing. I never did expect anything else in the Galactic politics. My job, however, has become a lot harder."

"We _have_ increased C-Sec patrols on the presidium, Commander," Valern pointed out. "We have done some maneuvers to cover the increased density of the C-Sec up, but we now have twice as many men – majority in the gunshot range of the Monument."

"Let me put it to you like this, Councilors," Marcus started. "You may place ten times as many C-Sec on the Presidium and it won't matter. The Conduit exit – the Relay Monument – is less than one hundred meters away from the Citadel Tower. Once the Geth army drops through the Conduit, there will be nothing you can do short of having heavy armor up there. Since you are obviously disinclined to do anything like that, having more C-Sec will only mean more lives lost."

"That's only _if_ the Geth army gets here, Commander," Valern said. "That's why we sent you to stop them."

"One frigate against a fleet of synthetic death machines?" Marcus demanded gruffly.

His words were met with awkward silence from their part. He spread his arms widely.

"I do not understand what you want me to do here, Councilors. Relays cannot be destroyed, and Saren might already have all the info he needs to determine the location of the Mu relay that leads to Ilos. And _I_ have no information _whatsoever_ on where to search for him."

The Councilors looked amongst themselves before Valern spoke:

"Unfortunately, we have come upon a solid wall in that regard and a lot of dead ends. It turns out that Saren had liquidated _all_ of his assets and possessions within the Council Space – some of them months in advance."

"Nobody noticed because his former Spectre status enabled him an unprecedented level of clearance in covering it all up," Sparatus growled. "Right now, it's as if his assets and contacts had simply ceased to exist. We _know_ that he has assets outside of the Council Space, but since he used his Spectre credentials to cover it up, those assets are next to impossible to find."

"To be honest, nobody ever expected that a Council Spectre would want to invest in things that are not in the stable regions of the Citadel," Tevos said. "It was simply… well… preposterous to think." She narrowed her eyes at Marcus. "You don't seem moved by any of what we're saying, are you, Commander?"

"No," Marcus replied mirthlessly. "I expected every single word you had said thus far. What I hope to hear next from you is what is being done about it?"

"Our investigation is doing everything it can to trace Saren's assets that lie beyond Citadel Space," Tevos said. "I assure you, Commander, you will be the first to know if there is a development."

"Work harder," Marcus said succinctly. "I don't need to tell you what will happen if Saren pops through the Citadel backdoor and takes control of the Tower. Meanwhile, I will begin some investigations of my own. It might not be as any good as anything of yours, but a different point of view might provide a tipping point."

The Councilors looked significantly at each other.

"Very well, Commander. We will take your input under advisement," Tevos said, then ended the comm.

Marcus turned around and leaned back against the console, crossing his arms in front of him.

"Are those pyjacks _that_ stupid?" Wrex rumbled.

Marcus raised his eyes and looked around the briefing room, where the rest of his team of specialists sat.

"I had hoped for more from them when it comes to the Relay Monument," Jaina said annoyedly from where she stood leaning against the wall in full armor and gear.

"I hoped too, but I knew it wouldn't happen," Marcus replied grimly. "I knew exactly how they were going to react."

"But why?" Tali asked. "They are the leaders of the Galactic community! They should be responsible for protecting the people."

"They're not leaders, Tali," Jaina replied. "They are politicians. A leader doesn't care who he offends when the job needs to be done. Politicians do just the opposite – they care _not_ to offend anyone." She then addressed Marcus: "Let's just hope that your little speech had scared them enough to actually do something about this whole mess, for a change."

"The best we can hope for is for them to tighten up the security inside the Citadel Tower itself," Marcus replied. "But that won't stop Saren. When he comes, he will come with overwhelming force."

"He doesn't even have to come with full force," Garrus said. "The C-Sec didn't have to deal with major assault anywhere on the Citadel for the past twenty years, and even then it was one merc gang. They're as prepared for a full-blown invasion as kittens are against a pack of rabid varren. It will be Eden Prime all over again."

"You really think it's going to come to blows on the Citadel itself?" Kaidan asked.

"That's the only place where Saren will expose himself that we know of," Marcus replied. "In any other case, he will have Sovereign watching down on him from orbit, unless he is already in the Reaper itself. And based on the images of the beacon imprint, not even Prothean dreadnoughts could stand toe-to-toe against such ships, which means our Normandy cannot do much for it."

"Yeah, but what if we could confront him somewhere where the Reaper cannot use its might against us, lest it kills Saren as well?" Ashley proposed. "Like on one of his outposts maybe, while he's there?"

"Precisely," Marcus said, raising his eyebrows for emphasis. "That is the manner of thinking that I hope to hear from all of you. See, there is not a doubt that Saren has established one or more hidden bases somewhere in the Traverse or the Terminus. As you've seen in the conversation, though, it appears that the Council has big trouble finding Saren's assets outside of the Citadel Space. Being a Spectre, Saren had used his authority to cover his tracks. Using only Citadel Space information assets isn't going to cut it."

He tapped the button on the console next to him and the holo-projection of a planet popped up at the center of the room.

"That's why we're heading here, to Illium," he finished, motioning at the holo-image of the garden world with several hovering images depicting the bustling cityscape.

"Illium?" Garrus asked right back, frowning. "That's on the whole opposite side of the Traverse. Besides, I don't think Saren could hide there. There's too much traffic for him to stay unnoticed."

"Yeah, I think his gigantic AI squid friend would be noticed," Tali said dryly. "S-so… why would we be heading there in any case?"

"Information gathering," Jaina replied simply. "Since the Council seems to be incapable, we need to find intel on Saren on our own. So, yes, while Saren might never go to Illium himself, Illium is still a hub of commerce, mercenary activity, private armies, and well as industry."

"That," Liara spoke up, "and being the world with very lax laws and regulations, it is a prime galactic hub of information pertaining to all sorts of illegal activities that are happening all throughout the Traverse and the Terminus systems. I've spent a part of my life there while I did archaeology expeditious in the Terminus. I've witnessed how it is. Enormous amounts of data are being traded on an hourly basis by numerous information brokers. The cutthroat business ensures that the huge money is at stake and that virtually anything can be found out one way or another."

"What she says is right," Wrex said. "I've been there many times. Never stuck for long, though. Illium is one fucked-up and dangerous place, alright."

"Really?" Ashley asked in bewilderment as she glanced over the photos of the capital, Nos Astra. "Looks like a pretty classy place."

"Well, looks can be deceiving, kid," Wrex growled. "The corporations of Illium like to keep up the classy appearances and pretend they try to keep their business on the 'morally high ground', when in fact, they do backdoor business with the most ruthless of killers of the Galaxy on a regular basis – and it's that duplicity that makes them so dangerous. So, don't kid yourself, Williams. Illium is like a high-class whore. She may look great, and she may give you a great ride, but in the morning you will wake up in a tub of ice with a missing wallet, missing kidney, and your signature on an indentured servitude contract. That's why I took extra care when I went down to Illium, and always packed my guns – it may look like elite, but at its core, it's as rotten as Omega."

"Jesus," Kaidan muttered. "Isn't Illium an Asari world?"

"Technically, no," Liara spoke up. "While it was originally colonized by asari, and we represent by far the majority of its citizenship, Illium is not technically a part of the Asari Republics. It is an independent world. It has its own laws, its own police, its own government. It works as a gateway to Terminus, and as such, many of its laws and regulations are relaxed, allowing for many things that are illegal in Council Space: drugs, illegal technology, medical services, augmentations, unethical research, even legalized slavery; they call it indentured servitude."

"You're kidding, right?" Ashley spoke up in annoyance. "High and mighty asari allowing for such a thing?"

"Ash…" Marcus spoke with a warning tone.

"It's alright, Commander," Liara spoke up, just as Ashley sat a bit straighter in her chair. "What Chief says is very much true. This is the ugly part of asari society. While our homeworld, Thessia, is a beautiful world, it has made _others_ pay for its beauty; Illium is one such world whose practices are needed in order to ensure both the stability and economy of the core asari worlds. There is no sugarcoating it. The Matriarchs may try to hide it in a beautiful wrapping, but the fact is that they very much support everything that is happening on Illium."

Garrus hummed pensively. "So, do you intend to find the info on Saren through one of the various information brokers on Illium?" he asked.

"No. That'd cost too much money for too little possible info," Marcus said. "Saren has covered his tracks too well. If ordinary brokers could find the intel, the STG or another Spectre would have intercepted and relayed it to the Citadel by now. Shadow Broker might know where he is, but I don't like relying on him one bit. He is a too powerful of a player for me to feel comfortable working with him; it could easily leave us compromised in the long run – just like what happened to Saren."

"S-so… how exactly do we go about?" Tali asked slowly.

"Through me," Liara said. When everyone turned their attention to her, she continued:

"Having spent several decades on Illium, I have established a number of personal contacts there. Nothing lustrous, really, but many of them are personal friends, old associates, and even _soitaeos_ to T'Soni family – sort of a generational debt, roughly speaking – which means that they are _very reliable_. I even have some other contacts – namely, people who I had previous profitable ventures with, people who I had scouting the Terminus for ruins, as well as groups of people that deal in the personal security detail. They may help as well."

"What is an extent and nature of the help all these people can give us?" Garrus asked interestedly. "What are we talking about here exactly, for that matter?"

"We're not talking about directly knowing where Saren or Benezia are," Liara said with a shake of her head. "None of the people I'm talking about know that. But they are the kind of people who, because of their own business ventures, have a lot of contacts, and their contacts have contacts. Someone along the line can find out something that, in turn, may be cross-referenced with another piece of information, which may ultimately lead to Saren's location."

Ashley shook her head as if fighting off vertigo.

"Whoa, that's a lot of circumstantial info gathering, Doc," she spoke up, motioning away with her hands. "How can you expect to find _anything_ of value like that?"

"Such is the information gathering, Chief," Liara replied apologetically.

"Maybe, but do you even have experience with information gathering, kid?" Wrex queried with his eyes narrowed.

"Some of my best archaeological findings were attributed to information gathering, right here on Illium," Liara declared victoriously. "The Terminus and the Traverse are teeming with unexplored ruins – far more than the core worlds. They are also teeming with pirates, mercenaries, freelancers, and prospectors, many of which quite frequently stumble upon those ruins in their ventures. I used to pay for information on archaeological finds. Later on, I even began trading information for information without anything costing me a dime. Catching this information early, before the newfound ruins could be robbed bare, was of paramount importance; and I have become quite proficient at it."

Wrex harrumphed. "Well, that may be a start," he said. "But these things may take a lot of time until feelers tap their way where they have to. There's no way we can hang around Illium for that long."

"We won't have to," Liara said, then turned to Marcus. "With your permission, I wish to set up a comm node on the Normandy for the purpose of maintaining this small network of people."

"It shouldn't present any strain on the ship's bandwidth," Jaina offered her opinion. "We're designed to operate on STG levels of comm priorities."

"Alright," Marcus nodded. "After you've made your contacts, go procure the equipment you need. Make sure it is military grade; we'll take care of all the expenses. I assume that lots of money will be needed to pay for all the intel swapping? We will use my Spectre funding to set you up with whatever you need."

He took a deep breath as he thought some more on it.

"We'll separate into two teams," he said. "One team will go with Liara, and another one will go with me."

"You do not need to send anyone with me, Commander," Liara said. "I've lived on Illium; I know how to take care of myself here."

"Your abilities and experience with Illium's lowlifes are not an issue, Liara. The problem is that you are hunted by a much bigger fish," Marcus stated. "Your mother may have her own people here, just waiting for you to show up, and if that happens, it won't be just a few punks this time around."

"I see your point," Liara muttered disconcertedly, looking down at the ground in intense thought.

"What are you going to do in the meantime?" Jaina asked Marcus. "You implied you want to do something on Illium, too."

"There are some projects that I wish to do, and I need some special items," he said. "I want to see if Illium has what I need."

"I may be able to point you in the right direction," Wrex said. "I know where to find custom weapons, armor, mods – anything that deals with war, anyway. What are we talking about here, exactly?"

"Vehicle parts," Marcus said. "Heavy-duty vehicle parts. Something that can take a _lot_ of punishment."

"An armored vehicle," Garrus spoke up in realization. "You want to do some modifications to the Mako."

Marcus shrugged without saying anything

"Why, though?" Garrus asked further. "The Mako is a good IFV as it is."

Marcus inhaled deeply through his nose, thinking before he spoke:

"As a regular army troop transporter – yes. But for the types of missions that _we_ need to be performing – not by a long shot!" he declared. "I saw its performance on Feros and I didn't like it one bit. It is mobile and all-terrain, but it lacks the _control_ for that mobility. Its differential is such that it makes it prone to veer off by as much as 90 degrees if you try to scale an obstacle – worse if the mass effect fields are active; it can downright flip it then. I can't work with that. The manner in which Jaina and I tend to do our missions requires the speed and flexibility that the Mako simply does not have as it is now. I need to change that to suit _my_ needs. Otherwise, that thing is just a glorified box on wheels taking up our cargo space."

"Hmm… I see," Garrus said, nodding. "Well, count me as interested in helping you then!"

"Good," Marcus said, then looked at Wrex. "What remains to be seen is whether Illium has what I need."

Wrex nodded slowly. "It can be found; especially on Illium. I know just the place, actually, and it offers parts for both ground and hover vehicle types, from racers to trucks, as well as shuttle crafts! If it has 'vehicle' in its name, this place has parts for it."

"You sure?" Marcus asked. "I'm looking for military grade assortment of machinery."

"Trust me, they have it," Wrex said, making a sideways cutting motion with his hand. "With the number of mercenary armies around Illium, they'd go out of business if they didn't."

"Alright, then," Marcus said, then tapped the comms. "Pressly? How long until Illium?"

" _Fifteen minutes, Commander_ ," the man replied.

"I advise we use Trella docking pier," Liara said.

Marcus nodded and alerted Pressly, receiving a confirmation right back.

* * *

The Normandy flew purposefully through the approach and pierced into the atmosphere of the lush planet. It glided slowly across the expansive bay, straight toward the skyline of Nos Astra skyscrapers, before touching down onto the designated docking bay.

The eight fully armed and armored professionals filed out of the airlock, drawing mildly interested looks from the docking technicians and administrative personnel from the control observation room.

Marcus scanned his surroundings with a look of a military man, not bothering in the slightest about whether he was projecting an aura of a first-comer.

The cityscape was an organized forest of elegant and sharp-looking skyscrapers, with numerous lower buildings interspersed between, and numerous domes visible among them. The whine of flying traffic was omnipresent, and only brought forth the sense of busyness that permeated this place.

There was something about it, Marcus realized; something alluring and bewitching that called to you, begging you to be immersed into everything this place had to offer. Just the thing Wrex spoke of: the elite high-class whore that could spin any man or woman's brain. Where the Citadel had an air of royal class to it, dignified and above earthly matters, Illium was the place where earthly matters were very much the core of things. He should know it the best; he grew up in just such a city on Earth.

"Gather 'round," Marcus called as he turned to face everyone, the people readily coming together in an informal semicircle around him. "We're doing this as we said: two groups. I need Wrex, Tali, and Garrus. Jaina, you take Ash and Kaidan along with Liara. That way we have people in either of our groups that have significant experience with Illium. Objections?" There were headshakes in the negative. "Good. Now, Liara, is there any final advice you wish to convey?"

Liara nodded, then addressed them in general.

"The area we'll be moving to is generally safe, and considered upper-class business district," she said. "Still, we best stick together. If separated, stay out of the alleyways, since there _may_ be mercenary groups or hostile gangs – they're not inclined to cause trouble in districts as important as this, but better safe than sorry – and whatever you do, _do not_ sign anything, and _do not_ consent to anything! We do not need any legislative hassle once it turns out to be a nasty scam."

Wrex snorted. "Not that anyone would try to scam us," he said, then pointed to his back where the Devastator machinegun was holstered. "We're packing enough firepower to blast them back to _krulzh_!"

"Yeah, about that," Ashley spoke up, "wouldn't it be weird to see a bunch of fully armed people walking casually around?"

"This is Illium," Liara said gravely. "It is _expected_."

"Huh… well, I won't say no to that!" Ashley declared happily.

The two teams separated after they exited the port, each grabbing a skycar taxi and heading in roughly separate directions.

The car with Marcus's team had a short ride from the port. They went low toward the waterfront, speeding across numerous shipping warehouses and some manufacturing plants – a real working grindhouse – until they landed on a parking lot in front of a non-descript looking building. A large holographic sign was the only thing that marked it specially.

"This is the place," Wrex said as the four of them filed out of the skycar.

"What are you looking for, exactly, Shepard?" Garrus asked as they filed out of the car.

Marcus turned to them and activated his omni-tool, bringing up a 3D projection of an odd-looking combat vehicle. Garrus frowned, looking closely at it.

"Looks a bit like the Mako in the main body section but…" he said, trailing off, and then he shook his head. "I've never seen a vehicle like that. What is it?"

"A prototype hover-tank I wish to build," Marcus said. "I call it the Scorpion – an arachnid species from Earth – because the design makes it resemble one."

There was silence for a couple of seconds as the present people examined the vehicle.

"I had been under the impression that all you want to do is improve the Mako's suspension and drive," Garrus said, then shook his head. "But this is a major overhaul you're trying to do here, Shepard. I can understand you rigging all those rifles for us; with a military-grade omni-fabricator that ships are equipped with, you have yourself a high-grade manufacturing plant right there. But rigging up a whole tank?!"

"It's far from impossible," Tali chirped, drawing both his and Wrex's attention. "You should see what we do in the flotilla. The few ground vehicles we do have are all different from one another."

"Maybe, but this thing would require a lot of time to finish," Garrus pointed out, nodding at the 3D projection. "Those side-mounted turrets at the front and the long gun going all the way from the rear are going to present a whole array of issues. It's gonna be a nightmare to calibrate."

"Well, what the hell do you think _you're_ for, turian?" Wrex barked amusedly.

"It's far from impossible, Garrus," Marcus said. "Russians are still notorious for what they did during World War II with their own vehicles in the middle of the war, and _we_ are even better equipped than they are. Like you said, we have our ship's heavy fabrication plant in the cargo bay. It will melt down and rebuild the armor panels where needed, as well as fabricate any type of subsystem we'd need. We're not trying to build an assembly line; we're making a pair of prototypes. We'll basically be rigging the parts in, and setting it well into overcapacity. I'm not looking for finesse. I'm looking for effect."

Garrus made a slight groaning sound as he shook his head. "The turian doctrine of precision engineering would have a thing or two to say about that."

"You intend to make it as an addition to the Mako?" Tali asked, ignoring Garrus's grumbling.

"I intend to supplant it completely!" Marcus replied. "We had picked up the Mako from Feros. I intend to rig both."

He gave them a moment for it to sink in.

"Well, alright then!" Wrex declared. "Are you three gonna stand there and talk all day, or are we actually doing some work?"

"You're just eager to make a new toy," Garrus commented.

"Damn right, I'm eager!" Wrex barked, sporting a krogan grin as he led them into the large building. "I haven't had an opportunity to play with new war vehicles for a while."

He led them toward the building's main entrance – a large cargo entrance – and the crew cast a broad look around the huge hall that was its interior. The scent of machine oils, lubricants, and coolant fluids permeated the place, along with the distinct smell of hot welded metals. The noise of metalworking and flashes of welding could be noticed in the distance as large cranes and lifters whirred around, transporting large pieces of machine parts across huge shelves that went three stories high. Engines, suspensions, hover-systems and thrusters, chassis and shells – everything was there. Just as Wrex said. And Tali seemed to be enthralled by what she was seeing, in particular, looking up and about like a little kid in a candy store, her hands clasped in front of her chest.

Wrex led them further in, with Garrus dragging Tali along, and went straight toward another krogan who seemed to be in the middle of work, checking something up on his datapad as he directed the other workers. Just as the krogan dispatched the men off to work, the group reached him, with Wrex throwing a wide hook around the other krogan's back, scooping him up in a bear hug.

"Charr, you lil' runt!" He bellowed as he rubbed the krogan's headplate roughly with his fist. "When are you going to start watching your back, like I told you to!"

"Wrex!" The younger krogan bellowed right back, jovially as he extricated himself from Wrex's arms and pushed the old krogan back roughly. "You old man! How've you been?!"

"Good," he nodded, then motioned toward Marcus with a wave of his head. "Found a job for the very first human Spectre. Been having some fun smashing and blasting geth throughout the Traverse."

"Oh, yeah," Charr spoke as he looked back at Marcus, and shook hands with him. "I've heard about that on the news. So, what brings you all here?"

"I'm rigging an armored hover vehicle," Marcus said. "I need a heavy-duty hovercraft system, thrusters, power plant, as well as enlarged eezo core."

"What kind of requirements are we talking about here?" Charr asked, his tone shifting from joyful to one of an experienced professional, quick and brutally efficient.

"I need the system to be able to fly forty tons of armor through ten-G stress, in all six degrees of freedom of movement. I need thrusters and a mass effect field projector system that enables shuttle-grade mobility beyond atmo, and a stabilization system that will combat one hundred mega-newton of gun recoil force."

"Now, _that's_ some heavy duty," Charr said with a happy evil grin, his voice gaining a low, sinister-like tone. "I assume the size constraints fall into general IFV category?"

"There is a bit of flexibility," Marcus said with a nod. "But we'll have to see."

Charr looked across the hall, then nodded. "Come with me. I've got a few things that would be just perfect for your needs."

He stalked off with a quick step, others moving to follow him.

"What did I tell you, Shepard," Wrex said. "Ilium caters to mercenaries and private armies throughout the Terminus. Everything you need, you'll find right here."

Marcus nodded, then motioned toward Charr with his chin. "He seems like an unusual fellow – for a krogan."

"That's an understatement," Tali spoke up dryly. "One minute he's all fun and joy, and the next, he's talking in a tone as if he wants to slit your throat in your sleep."

"Bah, that's just Charr," Wrex said dismissively. "He's actually as harmless as a drex rhino. He's an Urdnot as well, by the way. Was a little runt when I was still on Tuchanka – this small! I used to play bowling with him before I left."

"Bowling?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow. "There is bowling on Earth, but that can't be the same thing."

Wrex chuckled. "It's a game where the little krogan rolls itself into a ball, and then an adult throws him to roll along the ground, smashing everything in its path! Hahahaha! Ah, those were the days. Hey, Charr, remember when you kegged Drunt's entire krantt when we bowled that one time?!"

"I have a scar on the back of my hump to prove it!" Char declared evilly from up front. "They didn't know what hit 'em!"

Wrex clarified to others, "As he rolled at high speed, he bounced off a piece of concrete on the ground, flying high and straight into Drunt's mug. Nearly ripped his head off. As the guy flew backwards, he took down the three of his krantt's buddies. And to top it all off, Charr here barfed all over his face! Next thing you know, the lil' runt's running all over the place, shouting Borvol's Battle Hymn as Drunt's futilely chasing him around the settlement! Hey, Charr? How's that dream of becoming a Battle Chanter going for ya?"

"I'm a little busy earning a phat paycheck here rather than singing war songs in a radiation-clouded warzone," Charr retorted.

"Heh. Smart kid. A pity, though; you were always good at it." Wrex then turned to Marcus. "He always knew how to make the rimes on the spot, and for them to actually make sense in the given situation. Like:

 _We shall sing the songs of old wars,_

 _Once our armies come with thundering storms,_

 _And –_ "

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Charr interrupted annoyedly, turning on his heel and getting into Wrex's face. "You're doing it all wrong! Bah! You were always hopeless when it came to war songs. You can't sing the rhymes in couplet but in quatrain! And it needs to be a nine-syllabic! A stichic, nine-syllabic quatrain – Like:

 _Songs of olden sang shall be again,_

 _When the fallen brothers rise from earth,_

 _Eat the guts of enemies we shall,_

 _And grind their bones into ashen dirt!_

"Do you get it now?"

Wrex chuckled evilly, turning to Marcus.

"See? What did I tell you, Shepard? The kid can rhyme on the spot!"

Charr groaned in defeat. "Ugh! I shoulda realized he was baiting me into singing. Well, whatever. Are we here for my singing or do you actually want to see the merchandize? That's what I figured. Come, now, it's just over here."

Charr led them around the corner and waved his hand at a large section of neatly-arrayed mechanical parts of various sort.

Tali immediately advanced toward a set of hover suspension system and began pawing all over, around and under it, ignoring everyone and everything else as she got her hands on the first piece of a quarian candy.

"This is a Rhinok 550-Heavy," Charr said as he slapped the superstructure with his palm. "This is the system installed in heavy lifters that work in helium mining on gas giants. Now the 550-H was designed specifically to be used on the Jovian-class gas giants where the lifters need to combat gale-force winds of up to 1000 kph at several times the average atmospheric pressure. This thing here is exactly what you need."

Marcus nodded, then called, "Tali? How does it look like?"

Tali's head popped up from a gap from inside the machinery.

"This is a very sturdy piece of machinery, Shepard," she said enthusiastically. "Very simple in its design, too. This would be able to endure many shock impacts, and if damaged to be repaired with incredible ease!"

Marcus activated his omni-tool and sent the data of the Scorpion to her.

"Do me a favor, and check the volumetric comparison," he asked of her.

Tali nodded, immediately crawling out and digging into analyzing data compared to the system that was in front of them.

"What would you have for me when it comes to shuttle-grade thrusters?" Marcus asked Charr. "I need both high-G maneuvering and afterburners."

"The best thing would be the Systems Alliance Trailblazers – the ones used on your UT-47 Kodiak," Charr replied. "Other types could be used, but due to size…"

"Inefficient," Marcus nodded. "Yeah, I know, that's what I thought, too. The increased mass effect core should give it a lot more maneuverability."

"I have a Martelix 1200-series eezo core," Charr said as he led him a few paces away, up to the piece of tech. "This holds a lot of eezo, but as you can see, it is very compact; comes with the mass effect projector array. It is used in courier runner ships. Good enough for any armored vehicle if you ask me – unless personnel transportation is the goal here since this piece takes almost three cubic meters of space."

"No such thing as transporting infantry personnel," Marcus said with a shake of his head. "This is a frontline battle tank we're talking about here." He nodded toward the eezo core system. "Any compromises this core had to have in its design?"

"None. This is a turian tech. They don't do compromises. It's just that the system is very expensive because of the materials. Double the cost of the system that ordinarily holds the same amount of eezo."

"Eezo core is the one thing I never skimp out on," Marcus replied.

"Good," Tali spoke up as she approached them, and looked over the core appreciatively. "Because the Martelix is the greatest bang there is when it comes to courier ship cores. I can make some serious barriers with this. By the way, the Rhinok hover system is compatible. There is a bit of an offset as opposed to what you placed in the model, but it's correctable with minimum rigging."

"What else do you need?" Charr asked.

"This," Marcus said as he showed him a projection of a set of joints on his omni-tool, along with their dimensions and the additional specs. "That, or an equivalent."

Charr frowned as he looked closely. "These smaller ones are not a problem, but this big one… hmm…" his face suddenly lit up with an idea and he turned to move. "I think I have _exactly_ what you need. It's right at the –"

He suddenly trailed off when he saw an incomer several paces off – a pretty asari girl in a long dress, striding toward him, with a coy smile on her face.

"Ereba!" Charr spoke as his face lit up. The sinister-looking krogan mechanic disappeared, and… something else took his place as Charr stepped forward with a goofy grin and an airy, almost soothing tone of voice, completely uncharacteristic for a krogan.

"My beautiful little Blue Rose," Charr gushed as he stepped up to her. "What are you doing here?"

"My shift finished early, and I thought I'd surprise you – maybe persuade you for a date tonight," the woman replied with a smile as she hugged him.

"Ugh, there he goes again," Wrex murmured so only Marcus and Garrus could hear, Tali being too preoccupied with gushing over mechanical parts.

"I take it Char is a bit of an oddball among the krogan?" Garrus queried under his breath.

"You could say that again," Wrex grumbled. "Give him a shovel and point him to the enemy, and he'd charge straight into a rachni nest, singing our battle songs with fervor to move mountains! Point him to a woman, though, and suddenly you get romance and crappy poetry. Ugh," Wrex shook the chills off. "And he seems very fond of asari for some reason."

"Oh, don't tell me you've never had an asari in all your centuries!" Garrus chided.

"Bah, it's not that," Wrex said, then made grabbing motions with his hands. "It's just that they're so… squishy! I'm always afraid I'll break the damn thing. And even if I didn't, how is a man supposed to get a decent grip?!"

They looked back at Charr, who had a smitten look about him as he watched after his asari girlfriend saunter away. The krogan turned and approached them with a face-splitting smile.

"Ah, Ereba," he said. "Such a beautiful, cultivated flower. She deserves a dozen poems!"

"Why don't you stick to battle hymns, runt," Wrex stated. "Those ones at least are not as bad as your love poetry."

"Piss off, old man," Charr told him off. The professional mechanic had returned. He turned his head to Marcus and asked, "So, do we continue, or what?"

"By all means," Marcus replied before his omni-tool chimed. He tapped the incoming call and spoke:

"Hey," he greeted his wife. "How's it going on your end?"

"We're being followed," she deadpanned.

Marcus threw a questioning look toward Garrus, who had all this time acted as their watcher.

"Not on our side," the turian stated with a shake of his head. "Yet, anyway."

"I think it was Liara they were watching for," Jaina said. "The setup they're operating on was here for a while; there's just no way Saren would have known we would be heading to Illium; we didn't broadcast it to anyone outside of the ship. But he might have left this here in case Liara returns to Illium."

"What about the contacts Liara needed?" Marcus asked.

"We're nearly done," Jaina said. "I know, it was surprisingly quick. There were a few of her friends and contacts that worked in the commercial district, and the rest were contacted via public terminal. It's pretty much foolproof. We're heading to her apartment now for her to call up a few other contacts and to finish the setup of this small network before we transfer it to the Normandy. How far along are you at your end?"

"Just about," He replied. "We'll head immediately your way."

"Take care, Marcus," she said. "This thing seems awfully organized to me." And then she ended the comm.

"Charr, we need to finish this quick," Marcus said as he lowered his omni-tool. "The joints are just about the only remaining thing I need. You said you have them?"

"I sure do," he replied. "You need two medium class and one for big loads for that long gun you plan to install. To spare you the details, the best medium class of the joint I have for you is rated for standard IFV main gun stresses; judging from what I'm seeing, I'm pretty sure you'd need it. The big one, though, can handle the hundred mega-newton force with quite a bit more to spare, while not exceeding the size requirements you showed me. As for the stabilization system for it all, you need this," and there he tapped a button on his datapad, and showed it. "This one is a bit more expensive, but –"

"Not a problem," Marcus interjected.

Charr shrugged. "Alright then. Anything else?"

"Everything I ordered comes in pairs," Marcus said, then gave him the address of the dock where the Normandy was. "How soon can you have it delivered at this location?"

"Soon enough," Charr replied assuredly with a nod.

"Good," Marcus said, then transferred the substantial amount of credits. "Alright people, let's hustle! We need to get to Liara's apartment ASAP!"

.


	18. Chapter 18 - The Ambush

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _ **Welp, I suppose I owe ALL my readers an apology – because you lot obviously HAVE been paying a close attention to the details and hints that I had been leaving, yet I, in my infinite stupidity hadn't had faith in all of you!**_

 _ **But yeah, I had been a little weirded out, I suppose, when nobody said anything about it that first time. I guess I figured that reviews should be like a feedback for whatever stuff the reviewers notice so that I could know whether I was doing a good job. Not seeing anyone saying anything about it had had me slightly confused back then, I guess…**_

 _ **But! I'm happy to hear that's not the case! I love you guys! (And that's not the disproportionate amounts of alcohol talking). And thanks for all those reviews. Keep em up! I want to know what you think, even if it's criticism.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 22.2.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes (to an extent), Economic themes (there are some), Intrigue (a bit o' that, too)…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

...

 **Chapter 18 – The Ambush**

...

"I am already receiving feedback," Liara said as she worked her terminal at her apartment.

"Anything useful?" Jaina asked from her covered vantage point near the large window where she was carefully observing the outside area, her sniper ready in her hand.

"A lot," Liara replied significantly. "Several of my friends have informed me that certain people had come to them in the previous months, asking questions about me. Some dropped Benezia's name. I'm pretty sure we're dealing with the same group here."

"Makes perfect sense," Kaidan spoke from where he was positioned to guard the main entrance. "Your mother – or by extension, Saren – has tried to get to you once already, on the Citadel."

"And if what you say about Illium is true, their job is a lot easier here," Ashley added.

"Heads up," Jaina called. "Marcus and his group are here."

The skycar in question had landed on the landing pad far down and in front of Liara's building. The four people were exiting the car, watching their surroundings warily, before moving. Jaina noticed a movement in the corner of her eye and used her ocular cybernetics to focus on the location. A turian was there, in seemingly casual ware, but he held an air of a professional about him. She brought up her scope and noticed his jaw barely moving, but he was speaking alright. And this man was one of the several watchers she had already marked out.

"Marcus, we see you from up here," Jaina called through the comms as the group walked toward the building's entrance. "I have four unknown agents watching the place."

"I've seen one – the turian," Marcus replied as he walked. "Do we have any idea who they work for exactly?"

"No, but they have an air of ex-military," Jaina replied. "Two turians, asari, and a salarian. There might be a fifth, but I couldn't confirm." She squinted in suspicion. "One more thing, though; something about these people says they're not all from the same agency."

"Roger that," Marcus replied as he crossed the lobby.

Two minutes later, he called: "I'm in front of the door. Open up."

Kaidan tapped the holographic lock and opened the door to welcome the four people.

"Status?" Marcus queried as the crew spread out across the spacious apartment.

"I have finished setting up all of the virtual networks I'd need," Liara replied as she raised her omni-tool hand. "All of the nodes go through my omni-tool now. It will be hard to track once we set it up through the Normandy's Spectre-privileged comm channels. I'm just about to begin scrubbing the terminal."

"Have you found any bugs when you swept the place?" Marcus asked as he turned to Kaidan.

"I found several with my scanning programs," he replied, then pointed toward the kitchen with his chin. "Their crushed remains are soaking in the sink right now."

"You're sure that's all of them?" Marcus asked as he raised and set his omni-tool. "A full area EMP blast should take care of everything."

"Shepard, no, please!" Liara spoke up in distress, raising her hand to stop him. "You'll electrocute all of my fish!"

Marcus frowned, and then looked to the side where she was pointing, noticing a large wall-spanning aquarium filled with oblivious little fishes of various kinds. A VI-controlled electronic system that controlled food and water filtration spanned the entire tank and a single overload would be enough for it to send electrocuting sparks of current all throughout the saline water.

"Oh," he said in realization and lowered the omni-tool. "Right."

Liara breathed a sigh of relief.

"So what?" Wrex rumbled. "We could always eat them!"

"I'd be with Wrex on this one if the fish were dextro-based," Garrus jumped in, immediately. "We, turians, don't really understand the asari and human tendency to keep fish that's not for eating."

"Not funny!" Liara pouted angrily.

Wrex and Garrus chuckled.

"You men always like to do things bluntly," Tali stepped up, raising her omni-tool, and punching in a few commands. "You need to realize that some things can be done with finesse."

The omni-tool made a charging sound, then made a few beeps.

"There," Tali declared proudly. "All done. I had sent out a low-frequency signal that would've been picked up by monitoring devices only and would scramble their circuitry."

"A physical hack," Kaidan nodded. "A pretty ingenious thing to do. Nice work, Tali."

The quarian girl shifted on her feet, fighting off nervousness, before nodding firmly.

"How's that terminal scrub going, Liara?" Marcus asked?

"It will take a little while," she said as she tapped away on the keyboard.

"A little while?!" Wrex exclaimed. "Why don't we just pop a few rounds in it?"

"You obviously don't know how quantum memory banks work," Tali commented. "A quantum-electric trail can be detected even once the physical chip is damaged. You need to activate a special type of formatting and let the software destroy _itself_."

"Just take your time, Liara," Marcus said, ending further discussion.

He took up a slow walk around the apartment as the rest of the team settled to further securing and scouting the outer area. Garrus had taken up a sniper nest at an opposite side of the large window from Jaina, Wrex took the main entrance, and Tali sent out a group of drones through the air ducts and kept sweeping the wide block area with her enhanced sensor systems.

Marcus approached Jaina. "What do you think?" he asked.

"Something's going on down there," she said, not taking her eyes off of the street perimeter. "I'm positive that we're dealing with two groups from different agencies. One is the three-people team, and another is that single asari over at that café far down. They don't work together. The bigger group is agitated like something is about to happen. The single asari is observing them as much as she is observing us, and she knows we know she's there."

"Pretty strange for an agent to work alone," Marcus said as he scrutinized the asari in question.

"Not unheard of," Jaina replied. "The question is: who either of them is working for?"

Marcus nodded, then stood up and walked up to Tali.

"Anything?" he asked.

"I have detected an active penetrative scan directed at this apartment," she said. "It is coming from one salarian's tool – one of the members of the first team that Jaina had picked up. I am jamming him right now. I will attempt to jack into their comm systems."

"Keep at it," he said, then slowly walked around the apartment, and for the first time since he walked in, he took an actual look around the place.

He only saw apartments like this in the vids; high class, spacious, with a high ceiling, a huge wall-spanning window, and stylishly furbished interior. And then he saw the Prothean artifacts. A strange sensation of familiarity swept over him as his eyes scanned the objects. He approached the meter-high, smooth, monolithic object of straight vertical lines, sheets of stone and metal arrayed in a similar way like in a beacon. It was used as a… terminal of some kind, a memory told him.

He took off his left gauntlet and reached out with his hand toward the stony artifact. An unclear image tickled the back of his mind as soon as his fingers touched the surface. _That wasn't right_ , he thought with a frown, then looked sideways. _Why did I think it wasn't right?_

His eyes fell on the other objects that laid nearby. Three of what the modern-day scientific community thought were Prothean OSD-s were neatly arrayed one next to each other. He knew better, though; something in the back of his head was now telling him that these were more than mere OSD-s but actual processor units.

He touched each one, in turn, his fingers lingering for a few seconds, and whenever he touched, an unmistakable set of new senses accompanied it. Faded images, almost like an echo from a dream that one couldn't properly remember in the morning.

He looked at the last object – a volleyball-sized sphere whose surface shined like a mirror – recognizing it instantly as one type of a memory-transference device. But how? How could he know all this? The only explanation he had was that the Cipher had given him more than anyone had bargained for. And this… incomplete sensation whenever he touched things… what was that?

"It's done!" Liara called from where she had been meticulously scrubbing her terminal. "It has all been wiped clean."

Marcus nodded. "Kaidan, blast that terminal with a concentrated EMP," he said.

"You got it," the man replied as he approached the device, activating his omni-tool.

"Liara," Marcus spoke up as the electric sparks stopped sizzling across the now-dead terminal. "These Prothean artifacts here – we need to bring them with us. We just need the OSD-s and the memory orb. Find us something to transport them in."

Liara looked to the artifacts for a moment, then nodded firmly, hustling to bring some bags from her closet. They packed the orb into the padded bag and placed the "OSD-s" into secure pockets in their armor.

Just as Marcus was about to open his mouth to issue new orders, the apartment's telephone rang. Everybody froze as they watched the wall-mounted terminal flicker with a green icon of an incoming call.

Marcus unholstered his rifle, fully expecting this call to be a distraction for something bigger, and then nodded to Liara. The young asari approached the terminal and pressed the button for picking up the call.

"This is Liara T'Soni," she spoke.

"Miss T'Soni," a pleasant female voice from the other side spoke, "I work for the Shadow Broker. Commander Shepard, I would like to speak with you, specifically. My employer has a business proposition that you'd be very interested in, I assure you."

Marcus was silent for a couple of seconds, with everyone's heads turning his way.

"Speak your piece," he said.

"My employer has authorized me to offer you certain information on the quarry that you'd been pursuing. For a price, of course."

"What are you offering, and what are your terms?" he asked.

"I am offering information on Saren's non-mobile assets, as well as the most relevant businesses he is invested in," the woman said. "The price is ten million standard galactic credits, non-negotiable. The transfer of credits and information will be done via _this_ link."

Marcus's omni-tool beeped, and he activated it to show an icon that would have marked the transference of credits and data.

"This is a one-time offer, Commander," the woman continued. "Should you refuse, the price will be significantly higher later on. This offer expires in two minutes, as of – now."

"That's a generous offer," Wrex spoke up loudly. "A little _too_ generous for something as big as what you're offering."

"That is because of the quarrel my employer has with Saren, Urdnot Wrex," the woman replied, then addressed Marcus again: "The Shadow Broker is aware that you are setting up a rudimentary information network, Commander. Think of this as a corporate buyout: we provide you the information you are looking for, we earn money, hinder Saren who is our enemy, and peacefully remove the information network competition. It is well worth the discount. Ninety seconds, Commander."

Marcus looked to Wrex. The krogan made a grimace and wrinkled his nose pointedly, shaking his head in the no.

"I refuse," Marcus replied succinctly, and gave Liara the signal to close the channel.

"That's unf –" the woman's disappointed voice came through before the line was cut.

"This is rotten, Shepard," Wrex growled. "Shadow Broker doesn't make offers with such a narrow deadline. The shortest I've ever heard of was an hour, and it's almost never done."

"I'd have to agree with Wrex," Liara spoke up uncertainly. "From my limited experience, there is no need for such a thing. The information brokering is like an auction – it goes to the highest bidder, not first-come-first-served basis. I don't know why she was told to do this!"

"I think I know the reason!" Tali spoke up hurriedly from where she had been monitoring her omni-tool. "My drones had picked up a formation of shuttles heading our way. They'll be here in under two minutes!"

"Move it, people!" Marcus roared without wasting a moment, furiously motioning them toward the door with a swipe of his arm.

The stampeding thump of armored feet echoed throughout as the team hustled through the door and down the hallway.

"Tali, Liara, in the back of the elevator! Ash and Garrus, next! Jaina, Kaidan – guard the sides! Wrex, you and I, middle front - exit first."

The big krogan grunted in the affirmative as he readied his machinegun, the cooling system's fans spinning up to max, and the interior of the elevator began to twist in a swirl of blue as all of the biotics present began channeling the mass effect into barriers.

"Helmets on, people!" Marcus called, and there was a rustle as they mounted them on. "We don't know what weapons they'll use on us."

"My sensor sweeps are picking up twelve signatures consistent with weapons and armor on a person," Tali called out. "Main hall, strategic disposition of troops on all sides, covering the elevator doors and more sweeping in by the second. Linking it up to your omni-tools."

"Can you jam their sensors?" Marcus asked as he crouched, readying his rifle.

"Way ahead of you," she said. "They don't know what's coming down. Hang on… I'm detecting a group of mech signatures out of cover, straight in front of the elevator exit – shock troops to soak up damage."

"Shredded metal, as much as I'm concerned," Wrex rumbled as he primed his machinegun.

The floor counter counted: 3… 2… 1… 0. There was a ding, and the doors slid open.

A strong glow of an enemy searchlight surged into the elevator, its goal to blind everyone present and force them to hesitation as several flashbangs sailed through the air toward them, blasting straight in front of them. To zero effect.

The hailstorm of explosive rounds sailed forth from the elevator as no less than four heavily modified Mattocks-N7 Strikers and one Devastator machinegun had a clear line of fire, interspersed with several rapid launches of concussive shots making a series of thundering shockwaves.

A rising surge of surprised shouts and painful screams echoed throughout the building's large lobby as the attackers tried to organize a counterattack, with shots beginning to strike the shields and barriers of Marcus's team, trying to force them into a defensive.

And then, Wrex sent out a biotic shockwave and charged forward with a thunderous roar.

" _Watch out! The krogan!_ " someone shouted before there was an audible " _hurgh!"_ as someone was sent flying.

Marcus followed Wrex without wasting a second, launching himself with a biotic charge to the far side of the hall, slamming into his target and sending out a nova blast. He rolled into cover, avoiding the stream of gunfire directed his way, and then laid down a stream of continuous suppressive fire toward the encroaching enemy.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the rest of his team had already fanned out of the elevator and into the cover, stepping across the shredded pieces of twisted metal that used to have been the enemy mechs before they too added their fire support.

Far in front of them, Wrex was acting like a force of nature, flinging the screaming mercs all over the place in an impressive display of biotics and melee, switching to his claymore and eviscerating all at close quarters. Bodies were flying through the air like ragdolls as the mercs screamed in pain, and the mounting crescendo of gunfire enveloped the entire building as the Normandy's team stormed the next line of cover.

As the hailstorm of panicking enemy gunfire turned Wrex's way and mindlessly chased after him, in a testament to his experience, the grizzled battlemaster sidestepped into a thick cover and let the heavy gunfire blindly pepper his cover until a pair of heavy anti-materiel rounds from Jaina's and Garrus's rifles blasted a pair of enemy's skulls like watermelons, the blood and brain splatter disrupting the nearby enemies.

Using the distraction, Marcus popped out of the cover and unleashed a series of controlled short bursts from his modded Mattock, the mighty explosive rounds shredding the shielding up like a sheet of paper and breaking through the armor like it wasn't even there, the concussive force blasting the material apart like it was aged mortar. The explosions staggered his enemies back like a ton of bricks, and the incendiary effect sent conflagrating shrapnel in all directions, spreading panic and disarray through the shocked and awed enemies.

" _What the fuck are those weapons they're using?!_ " a male voice screamed.

" _Shuddup and fire!"_ a woman shrieked back.

Frag grenades sailed through the air into the cover of Marcus's team. He vaulted forward across the cover, sending a pair of quick successive concussion shots as his teammates rolled away from the blasts, then sprayed the incoming mercs with a long burst of explosive rounds, suppressing them and buying time for his team to return fire.

More enemy frags sailed through the air, only reaching as far as Liara's broad-arcing shockwave, knocking them away from their path and making them explode to the sides harmlessly.

Popping out from behind the thick column he took cover behind, Marcus resumed his assault on the enemy's positions as the entirety of his teammates' weapons, tech, and biotic attacks joined his.

Taking the opportunity his team's suppressive fire bought him, Marcus took a moment to actually examine the enemy soldiers through the sights as he was killing them. Yellow armor. Black markings. High-grade weapons. Professional movements and behavior despite them dying in quick succession. Mechs, salarians, humans, asari.

This was the Eclipse. He, just like any N7, was familiarized with their MO via numerous briefings. First time he'd encountered them, though. They were good, he had to give them that. They returned fire solidly, launching tech and biotic attacks, knowing how to duck and dodge – all that would've been more than enough to defeat any regular country's army.

But Marcus and his team, though, were not a regular army.

Step by step, cover by cover, rush by rush, shot by shot – Marcus's team was advancing toward the enemy's position like an encroaching tide.

" _We can't stop them!"_ they screamed as another group of mechs was ruined, another set of their biotic attacks absorbed and retaliated, and another hail of explosive rounds eroded their cover into pieces. Blood of various colors sprayed through the air in a misty haze, painting the floor and walls into a ghastly swirl of human red, asari purple, and salarian green.

" _They're tearing us apart over here, dam –_ " a salarian shouted before his head exploded.

" _Back to the shuttles! We're not equipped to deal with this!_ " a panicking voice ordered.

"Don't let them! I want them alive!" Marcus called before he vaulted over his newest cover and biotically charged the moment his feet hit the ground.

He flew out of the building's lobby, straight out into the open space of the building's front plaza and struck hard into the midst of the retreating group, launching a nova that sent the rest of them flying all over the place.

His shields immediately began taking bullets, screeching their protest, before another biotic attack slammed into the enemy's midst, launching a nova. Jaina!

Before any one of the two commanders even managed to rise up to defend against the retaliating mercs, a flurry of earth-shattering biotic strikes erupted all around them as enraged Liara stormed out of the building, devastating the remainder of the enemy forces in a crescendo of biotic explosions. With a final shred of energy, the young asari screamed as she slammed a broad-area biotic barrier in front of the two, blocking the incoming hailstorm of gunfire from the hovering shuttles from which the mercs had dropped out of.

The rest of the team stormed out right on her heels, unleashing the heavy covering fire against the hovering shuttles, Wrex's and Garrus's heavy weapons quickly putting extreme pressure against their vehicle-grade barriers.

With their ship-grade shields quickly beginning to scream in alarm and their ground forces defeated, the leading asari commando quickly issued orders for a retreat and the four asari-built shuttles quickly began to maneuver away, the few remaining mercs on them trying to lay down suppressive fire from above.

Ignoring the biotic fatigue that was creeping up into his veins, Marcus charged again, and the wake of biotic blue impacted the underside of the shuttle with thunderous force, making the craft stagger like a wounded bison and dislodge the asari commander into the open air.

Marcus slammed back down onto the ground from an uncontrolled drop, bouncing off of the pavement and rolling sideways before he heedlessly spun into a crouch, ignoring the tremendous pain in his left shoulder and beginning to empty his rifle's ammo into the bottom of the shuttle.

The vehicles spun as fast as they could, their armor panels beginning to take a brutal punishment from the advanced assault weapons of Marcus's team after their shields had failed before the pilots gunned the throttle and stormed away from their defeat.

The ensuing silence was only filled with the sound of buzzing in their ears.

Marcus stood up from where he was crouching, fighting down the pain and mounting pressure in his head as he activated the nutrient cocktail injection to relieve the biotic drain.

He looked around, seeing the status of his team with his own eyes, only to see a drained-looking Liara crouching down. Before he even managed to take a step, Jaina quickly stepped in, crouching down and removing the young asari's helmet as she checked her out. A thin trail of purple blood led down from her nose because of biotic overuse. Gently, Jaina wiped the blood away with her thumb, then injected a nutrient cocktail injection into Liara's neck along with a medigel dose. Liara's eyes and features instantly perked up at the stimulant, and the young asari nodded, grinning gratefully.

He released the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Status report!" He called.

Jaina spoke up: "All squad members accounted for, minor injuries – medigel sufficient… Five hostiles captured."

He turned and saw his squadmates dragging the five surviving hostiles and forcing them to sit against a low garden wall. There were two humans, two asari, and a salarian, including the apparent leader of the entire group who nursed the scratched bump on her forehead where she had struck the pavement after she had been dislodged from the shuttle.

Marcus fully intended to interrogate them; but before that…

He approached the street light post, stood next to it, aimed, and slammed his left shoulder with all his might against it. The sickening crunch sounded, marking the return of the shoulder joint back into its rightful place. He growled, fighting down the unpleasant chills that ran down his spine, and then made a circular motion with his left arm, checking the shoulder's integrity. That would need further medical care later.

He turned toward the prisoners and stepped menacingly in front of the asari commander. The woman raised her eyes to look up at him in annoyance, spotting the N7 logo on the black armor. She chuckled mirthlessly.

"I don't know what you were doing here, human," she said. "But this ain't Alliance space. It's not even Citadel Space. Hear that?" She jerked her head sideways, toward the sounds of the approaching police sirens. "Once Illium Security gets you, we're gonna make sure you never see the light of day. And for what? A single asari kid? Pfff!"

" _Illium Security!_ " an asari's voice called through the police car's speakers. " _Drop your weapons!_ "

Marcus did not speak. He did not even look at the two police cars with the third that was approaching. He just raised his omni-tool toward them and projected the Spectre identification straight into their omni-tools.

There was a pregnant pause, as the Illium Security personnel read out the ID, then scrambled in agitation as they spoke hurriedly to each other.

The asari Eclipse commander muttered a curse as she looked up at Marcus with anger and fear.

"You're _that_ guy, aren't you?" she growled, her body language instantly showing the change in her tune.

"I think you and I need to have a little chat," he said.

The asari clenched her teeth.

"Look, I was just following orders, alright?!" she spoke vehemently.

"Not my concern," he replied coldly. "My concern is why were the Eclipse here, attacking us in this number, and who ordered it."

"Look, we didn't know there was a Spectre here," she said defensively. "Our orders were to get the girl alive." She motioned with her chin at Liara. "We were supposed to deliver her to her mother after that."

"We killed over two dozen men, and destroyed a dozen mechs," Jaina commented as she stepped up next to Marcus and looked down at the woman. "That's a lot of manpower for one girl."

The asari signed. "We received info that she had a well-armed escort, seven in total, not including her, and that there was a krogan among them. We needed to disable you without hurting her." She shook her head. "Those damn morons never mentioned anything about who you actually were or what you were capable of. That's what you get when your eyes and ears are a third party."

"Elaborate!" Marcus demanded brusquely.

"The kid's mother was the one who provided for the third party people that would keep an eye out for the girl to show up. They tracked, and we were the muscle. Sederis is gonna be pissed at Benezia, alright. No telling what the crazy bitch will do now."

Marcus and Jaina shared a look.

"Jona Sederis?" Marcus asked.

The asari shrugged. "The big boss, yeah," she said. "Benezia paid well for all of this, but not well enough as it stands."

"Would Sederis know where Benezia is?" Jaina asked.

"Doubt it," she shook her head. "I was there when the deal was made. It was via comm link. Benezia never showed up in person. Good riddance, if you ask me; she creeps me out the way she dresses and talks. Even if Sederis knew where you could find Benezia, I wouldn't count on her telling you. Everybody knows how unpredictable she can be."

"That's an understatement," the single salarian merc muttered from where he sat.

Jaina looked at Marcus. "I don't think Benezia would be stupid enough to leave open trails, but…" she trailed off as her gaze fell down at the asari that sat on the ground. "Can we really trust what she says?"

She was right, he knew. This was Illium, the headquarters of the Eclipse; the asari and her friends would walk out jail-free as long as she survived this. All she needed was to spin a convincing enough story for him to buy it, and there was no way he'd be able to confirm if any of it was true. Except…

He cocked his head as something tingled in beneath the back of his mind as he looked down at the merc leader. Something was telling him that if he was to just… if he was to _just_ …

He unclasped and stowed his helm away, gazing down at the asari with a cold glare. He began to remove his gauntlets slowly, pointedly, making all five of the mercs pay close attention to the slow baring of his hands. He hooked the gauntlets on his belt and moved to crouch down, bringing himself to the sitting asari's height. He slowly brought his bare hand to the wide-eyed asari's face, laying his fingers on the side her jaw and gently cupping it with his thumb. He heard her audible gulp, and could almost sense the unease of the other mercs. In truth, they were radiating it!

He could feel what he was looking for, right there in the center of his mind. If he could _just_ … _attune_ to it in the way that he felt he should…

"My XO is right," Marcus said with an eerily calm voice as he gazed deep into the merc's eyes. "How do I know that you weren't lying to me?"

"Look, man," asari spoke with a quivering voice. "I don't know anything, alright? All I know is that the girl's mother wanted us to capture her and bring her in."

 _There it is_ – Marcus thought as an unmistakable sensation surged right into the pads of his fingers and his palm. The asari was telling the truth.

"Are you _sure_?" he continued menacingly, "that it is all that you know?"

Something else surged through his palm, and it was almost like a quick flurry of murky images flashed in the back of his head. Somehow he knew, he just _knew_ that those murky images were coming from the asari.

"It is, I swear!" the woman replied. "Everything that I've told you earlier is true!"

"Think hard, then: have you missed some vital info that you _should_ have told me?" he asked as he stroked her cheek with his thumb gently. Her dread and unease were amazingly palpable and clear on his fingertips. It was as if he was reading her like an open book!

"I've told you _everything_ I know," she said, almost squeezing it through her teeth. "And it was the truth!"

He just looked at her for a few more seconds, letting those flashes of impressions and images he was picking up from her swirl through the back of his head. He then stood up and stepped away from her, breaking the contact and rubbing the fingers of his hand together unconsciously. The moment he had released her, both the images and the sensations he felt from her receded, and he processed and filed it down for the future.

He looked to the sidelines then, where Illium Security had made a broad perimeter with half a dozen cars and was watching them warily.

"You two," he motioned at the pair of Illium Security officers, then nodded toward the mercs. "Watch them."

The two asari officers looked to each other uneasily and stepped up reluctantly as Marcus moved several paces away to gather his team, where they could talk without being overheard.

"Daymn, Skipper," Ashley spoke with a lopsided grin, "Where'd ya learn to interrogate people like that? The woman almost crapped herself."

"You don't usually take that approach to interrogation," Jaina noted with a smirk, recognizing all he did as an act.

"It sure was impressive crazy cop routine, though," Garrus complemented.

"You mean the good cop – bad cop?" Ashley asked.

"Hmm, yeah, except that this was a variation of it: sane cop – murderous lunatic cop," Garrus clarified, then looked at Marcus. "From a professional cop's point of view, I think that she was not lying."

"I'm sure of that, as well," Marcus said as he refastened his gauntlets. "I believe that it wouldn't pay off to pursue Jona Sederis for any kind of info she might have."

"Yeah, based on the N7 headquarters profiles, Jona Sederis is depicted as unpredictable, conniving and non-cooperative," Jaina said, then shook her head. "Any info she would give might very well be a wild goose chase."

"Agreed," Marcus nodded. "We'll just have to rely on our own network that we had set up, and hope it digs up something."

"What I would want to know is what the heck was that deal with that Shadow Broker's agent that contacted us earlier," Kaidan groused.

"They might not have been a Shadow Broker agent at all," Garrus ventured. "They might have been Eclipse imposters or the third party that did the monitoring on their behalf, stalling for time so that their teams get there."

"Maybe," Wrex offered. "But that woman did all the typical steps a Shadow Broker agent does. I should know; I did a lot of work for him."

"How do you know it's a 'he'?" Jaina asked, raising her eyebrow.

"I just do," Wrex said. "It's the little things, clues that you pick up. I'll talk about it later if you're so interested."

"Fair enough," Jaina said. "So, do you think this was a real Shadow Broker agent?"

"I believe so," Wrex said as he shifted on his feet. "And I think I know what the Shadow Broker was trying to do. He knew the Eclipse was sending a whole platoon against us, supported by mechs. He didn't think we'd live through this; no average group of mercs in our place would. He wanted to cash in some quick money by convincing us to buy quickly and cheaply while threatening that he'd raise the price if we didn't. After the Eclipse ambushed and killed us all, the information would be dead with us, which meant that he could sell it again. He would lose nothing; only gain easy money."

"That son of a bitch!" Ashley spoke incredulously.

"Cutthroat entrepreneurship, Chief," Marcus spoke grimly. "We now know how far we can trust him."

A wave of angry mutters showed their agreement with him.

"Spectre Shepard," a woman's voice suddenly came from the side.

The entire group turned and saw an asari wearing a business pant suit, standing a few paces out. She had a clear air of a high-ranking policewoman.

Marcus approached her. "And you are?" he asked.

"Captain Erezia T'Varos, Illium Security, in charge of the precinct overseeing this district," she said.

"Captain," Marcus said, then looked around with a grim frown at the carnage that was the building's lobby, shattered windows, and the plaza in front of it. "Sorry about the mess."

Captain T'Varos looked around, taking in the damages, then looked back at him.

"Would you mind explaining what happened here?" she asked neutrally.

"One of my squad specialists owns an apartment in this building – Doctor Liara T'Soni," he said, turning to look at Liara, who nodded back. "We came to Nos Astra to do business – the _non-violent_ kind of business – and regrouped here before we were to return to our ship and leave Illium. For _some_ reason, the Eclipse decided they wanted to try to ambush us as we were leaving the building. I am sure that there will be plenty of security cameras around the block that will confirm this."

The Captain made a sideways nod with a raised eyebrow.

"Naturally there are," she said in the affirmative. "But with that settled, mine and my superiors' biggest concern is whether you will want to pursue this incident with the Eclipse any further. Eclipse is a legitimate mercenary organization, and we cannot move against them, and neither would we like if there was an all-out war between you two; we wish to maintain peace and security."

"My quarrel with them never existed as far as I am concerned," he said. "It is them you should ask that question. But I _am_ leaving Illium, now."

The asari captain visibly relaxed, and then smiled. "I am glad to hear that, Commander," she said with a nod. "Everyone here will be relieved to hear it as well."

Marcus looked sideways to the police officers that were now securing the area, noticing their consternated looks directed his way.

"I do seem to notice odd looks directed my way," he commented. "I may have been a Spectre a short while, but those are not exactly the looks I'd have expected – even on Illium."

"Your reputation is spreading, Commander," T'Varos said. "You may not be aware, but your execution of that human corporate CEO a few days ago has leaked onto the extranet despite Citadel censure, especially here in the gray zone of Illium. Everybody has seen what you've done, and you might see how a planet such as this, which relies on corporate businesses to prosper, becomes very agitated when someone like you would drop in unannounced."

"Hmm," he mused, then nodded. "Good bye, Captain."

He motioned for his people to follow him, and they promptly left the taped-off area, walking toward the cab terminal. They picked up two cars and, as they settled in, Marcus turned toward Liara, who was sitting in the back seat with Tali.

"You alright?" he asked. "You've had a rough biotic drain there."

Liara grinned. "I'm fine, Commander. That nutrient cocktail injection is amazing!"

"Hm. Glad to hear," he said. "How have the artifacts fared?"

Liara opened the bag and pulled out the mirror orb. It seemed to still be in pristine condition.

"It's intact," she replied.

"Good," he said, then settled in as the car lifted off, and began navigating toward the nearest traffic lane. "Take us to our ship, Jaina."

"Aye-aye, sir," she smiled and gunned the throttle.

* * *

...

One hour later, the Normandy was leaving Illium high orbit at full throttle, straight on the way toward mass relay, and the ground team had gathered in the comm room without waiting to remove their gear.

"Everyone settled in?" Marcus asked as he stood in front of the comm console, then nodded when everyone nodded, their heads turned toward him.

"Alright… here's how the situation stands," he started. "The previous two weeks have been one hectic hurricane of activity; to some more than to others. Eden Prime, hunt for clues against Saren, Feros, Luna, and now Illium."

"Goddess," Liara muttered as she looked around at everyone. "Has it really been a mere two weeks?"

"Seems more like months to me," Kaidan spoke up as he leaned with his left elbow against one knee and with his palm against the other.

"Tell me about it," Ashley commented, then leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. "I've lost my entire squad and I'm actually grateful for all this activity. It shifted my mind off of… thinking of it."

Kaidan reached out and placed a firm hand of support against her shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about me, Lt," Ashley grinned. "Kicking Saren in the nuts makes everything feel it's worth it."

"Yeah, but the trail has gone cold now," Garrus commented annoyedly. "I just wish we knew what the bastard was up to."

"That's why we've set up those feelers through Liara's contacts," Jaina said with a shrug. "Many of them are well acquainted with Benezia and share many contacts. Some of them might ferret out where she is or what she plans."

"But will they cooperate?" Wrex rumbled, then spoke to Liara, "If they were your mother's friends, they might betray you to her, instead."

"Which only works in our favor," Liara retorted, smiling. "Our goal is to find Benezia. If my contacts betray me and send me into an ambush, then we will just fight our way through, and get to her that way. They might stall and provide misinformation on Benezia's behalf, but they can only stall so far. Sooner or later, anyone would blunder and provide a key piece of information, and if they reveal themselves, we will question them."

"Hmm," Wrex rumbled, then nodded. "Clever. Was never a fan of putting myself out like a target like that, even though there were times, but – clever."

Kaidan chose the moment to speak up:

"You know, this whole thing with intel on Saren – it makes me wonder how is it possible that the Council cannot find anything on him. They're supposed to be using STG teams. I mean, am I the only one who finds this strange?"

"I don't," Marcus rumbled, making people turn their heads toward him. "Saren attacked Eden Prime by making an advance through Argus Rho and Hades Beta primary relays, and he did that by disabling STG listening posts with his Spectre codes. Garrus, how many times was it that you found that Saren used his Spectre codes to manipulate the listening posts throughout the Traverse during the year? Forty times?"

"Something like that, yeah," the turian nodded grimly. "And that was only recently."

"Who knows what other ventures he might have set up long before that," Jaina added. "It might even be something that was made decades ago. Saren is not exactly young; he had had plenty of time."

"Huh. And here I thought this whole thing would be easy," Kaidan muttered.

That brought a round of chuckles.

"Well, like I said, that's why we needed to try everything we could with this intel net," Marcus said.

"Shepard," Liara spoke up then, "there is still the matter of these artifacts you asked me to bring from my apartment."

She opened up the bag and removed the orb from it.

"You seem to be pretty interested in those things," Jaina commented as she looked at the shiny orb, then looked back at him. "And you don't usually do things just for the heck of it. What did you want to do with them?"

Marcus stepped up to Liara and picked up the orb, hefting it in front of him, and showing it around.

"This was a memory device the Protheans used," he said.

There was a moment of silence.

"How do you know?" Garrus asked.

"The Cipher," Liara guessed, her eyes lighting up. "It was more than just a tool to decipher the images from the Beacon. Its true potential was much, much greater than that – I have felt it when we melded. The Thorian had absorbed memories of countless Protheans, and he might have very well transferred them to you, Shepard."

"But how would you activate it?" Tali asked as he stepped up from her seat and made a quick scan of the orb, then looked at the data. "I'm not picking up anything on it that could be a control surface, data port – nothing! Are you sure it's a memory device?"

Marcus just silently looked at the orb in his hands, as if concentrating on it. And then suddenly, the orb's surface rippled like quicksilver for a moment, making everyone step back in alertness.

Just as soon as it began, it stopped, with Marcus yanking his head sideways in pain, shaking it, and pressing his thumb where nose met brow ridge.

"Whoa there, big guy," Jaina spoke up in concern as she stepped up to him, holding him by the plexus.

"Are you alright, Shepard?" Liara asked from the other side just as concernedly.

"Yeah," he said as he lowered his thumb from his brow and looked at the orb. "Yeah, I'm alright."

"What just happened?" Kaidan queried.

Marcus smirked, rising the orb for emphasis.

"It's a memory device, alright," he said. "It works like a beacon – sending images into your mind. I have activated it for a moment."

"I never realized," Liara murmured as she looked at the orb, eyes wide amazement and mere inches away from the mirror-like surface. "I've owned that orb for decades, and I never suspected it was anything more than a piece of art."

"I think it may be using your body's electrical charge to power itself," Tali said in wonder as she scanned the object. "It does show some residual energy patterns, now. How did you activate it?"

"I can't explain it," he said with a shake of his head. "But I think I might be able to reproduce it again."

"As your XO, I strongly advise against it at this moment," Jaina said in a voice that practically brooked no argument. "We are not in combat, and we have the time. If we will be doing research on these devices that seem to play with your head, then it will be done under Doctor Chakwas's supervision."

"Very well, XO," Marcus smirked and nodded. "I will heed your advice. We should all rest up a bit now."

There was a chime.

"This is Shepard," Marcus said after he tapped the incoming comm.

" _Sorry to bother you, Commander_ ," Pressly's voice came through, " _but both Adams and Lansky down at the cargo hold are complaining about the cargo you've procured on Illium. With the second Mako we picked up on Earth and the two Tritons, things are beginning to feel a bit crowded down there._ "

"Understood, Pressly," Marcus said. "I'll get down on it… as soon as my XO allows me to," he added pointedly, looking at his wife with a smile.

Jaina looked back up at him, with a narrow-eyed tight-lipped smile, crossed her arms, and said, "I'll allow it."

" _I'll let them know, Commander_ ," the Navigator said. " _Pressly out!_ "

"Garrus, Tali," Marcus called. "Feel like putting a few your technical skills at work modifying some combat vehicles?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" Tali lilted wistfully.

"Ready and eager, Shepard," Garrus nodded.

"Count me in, too," Wrex spoke up as he stepped up. "You're making guns? I want to make guns."

"Good," Tali quipped. "I could use a crane."

Wrex's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, before narrowing down at her.

"Kaidan?" Marcus invited him.

"Sure thing, Sheppard," the man replied.

"Ugh," Ashley grunted in mock exasperation. "Come on, girls. Let's leave boys to their toys."

"Ahem!" Tali coughed pointedly.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Ash said, grinning mischievously as she stepped up to her, yanked the top of her cowl downward a bit to distract her, then grabbed her helmeted chin and smacked a theatrical kiss on the thoroughly and cutely confused Tali's cheek. "We love you too Tali-girl, but we're calling dibs on later girl bonding time."

"R-r-right," the bashful quarian stammered. "I-I'm gonna… go," and she promptly fled the room.

 _Oh, I'm so gonna tease her,_ Ashley mouthed eagerly to an amused Jaina who gave her a good-natured warning look.

 _Oh, fine,_ Ash mouthed and followed the rest of the people as they began to file out of the comm room, and Marcus threw another look at the Prothean orb Liara was carrying before Jaina caught him.

"Mako. _Now!_ " she said pointedly, reaching out with her hand to his cheek and turning his head away from the orb. She crossed her arms as she looked at him step away, and shook her head. "Honestly…!"

Marcus descended down the elevator with the rest of his impromptu skunkworks team. Despite Jaina's words, the Prothean memory device was still in his mind; or rather, what was in it. As they stepped out of the elevator, he remembered the short glimpse he had. It was nothing but a rough preview of what was inside, but it was clear as day as to what he had seen: a design for a Prothean particle-based weapon. He shook his head at the sheer luck of having this kind of find sitting at Liara's apartment. If worst came to worst, and the Reapers came, then they would need every bit of advantage they could get.

He turned his attention back into the cargo hold and looked across the crowded mess of newly delivered parts, where Tali, Garrus, Kaidan, and Wrex were already swarming over them.

They were going to make this work, he decided.

...

* * *

 _ **...**_

 _ **ON ANOTHER NOTE,**_

 _ **I've just seen additional info on ME: Andromeda's main battle tank – I mean krogan, Drack. It says he's well over 1400 years old. Ok, if they had decided to make it so, I guess I can't argue… except that I had grown up next to the**_ _ **original ME1 Codex**_ _ **that says Krogan live a bit over 1000 years, which in that context appeared as though they meant 'far less' than 1500. I figured it'd be like 1200 at most and that a krogan that old, like Okeer, would be basically a geezer, not a main battle tankrogan.**_

 _ **That's why I made Wrex in this story a bit 'younger' so to speak, at some 500-600 years so that he is only in krogan middle-age, equivalent to what Zaeed or Hackett are for humans (Hackett's actually 49 in ME1). Originally,**_ _ **Janizary**_ _ **pointed this out to me that Wrex might be too young in my book, so I'm asking you for your thoughts on krogan age in general and whether there'd be a point for a krogan to be well over a thousand years old and still kicking ass. PM me, and we can talk!**_

 _ **On Another Another note,**_

 _ **I've seen the recent Andromeda weapons and skills video and saw that there will be gigantic krogan melee hammers that Ryder can use in battle. I hereby publically declare my dislike of that. An omniblade, a ka-bar knife, even a sword would be okay. But gigantic krogan melee hammer in a futuristic combat? I just don't know…**_

 _ **Aaand on another, etc, etc, note:**_

 _ **158 reviews, 236 favs, and 281 follows for 156-k words so far! Nice :-)**_

 _ **But that's not enough! I declare now, that I shall not rest or find peace until this story of mine has at least THRICE as many revs, favs, and folls! I swear it on my trusted omniblade and M-71 Revenant! Now, who's with me?!**_


	19. Chapter 19 - New Mysteries

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _ **Thank you all for giving me all your thoughts on krogan lifespan. I am not going to be extreme as some of you had suggested could be possible on krogan age in general, but I am going to make Wrex's apparent age somewhat greater than what I previously did, and I'll edit the chapters accordingly. Also, I am going to be purposefully vague on the matter of his exact age, just like the games were, but I'll say he's an old, experienced dog.**_

 _ **I also**_ _ **apologize**_ _ **for this chapter being slightly late (about 3 days late than what I intended, actually), and the reason for that is because a colleague has taken an emergency sick-leave and my workload has increased by 30%. Things had been pretty hectic, obviously.**_

 _ **Now, this chapter is obviously a bit shorter than usual, and I'm afraid that the next one will be too, but I hope that the quality of it makes up for any subsequent delays that might happen because of the sudden workload increase that has prevented me from writing as much.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 2.3.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes (to an extent), Economic themes (there are some), Intrigue (a bit o' that, too)…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

...

 **Chapter 19 – New Mysteries**

...

Adams looked intently through the 3D sketch schematics in front of him, his keen engineer's eye scanning and correlating what he was seeing in front of him with what he already knew.

"What do you think?" Marcus asked from the other side of the work desk, wearing his full armor.

Adams was silent for a moment before he reached out with his hand and pointed at a section of the model.

"I know this is the mass effect module," he said, "and these here are the relay nodes. This whole thing here is the amplifier." His finger then moved to point another section. "However, I have no idea what this entire section is supposed to be about. I know that this here inside of it is a power source, but it, and everything else is like nothing I've ever seen."

"I'm pretty sure it's a helium-3 disassembler generator," Marcus said. "It's set to project a quint-phasic current. I'm thinking that most Prothean tech was based on using quint-phasics and that that's why we're having problems understanding it."

"I think I follow," Adams murmured as he frowned at the schematics. "If this produces quint-phasic currents, then this part here starts to make some sense. I think it's an oscillator of some kind."

Marcus reached to his side, grabbing a datapad and showing it to Adams. "It works on this principle," he said.

Adams took a few moments to look it over as he pondered.

"I know these formulae," he said in the end, and then pointed one segment of it. "But, what the heck are these symbols?"

"That's the problem," Marcus said, pointing at it with his upturned palm. "I can't translate those operator symbols. It's Prothean-specific; like an extra set of letters that our languages simply don't have and cannot use. But if you think of this operator here as a mathematical 'if' and this one as a 'del'…"

"Hmm," Adams nodded. "I think I get it. It's a…" he shook his head. "I don't know what to call it, but I think I know what it does. This module might very well be the solution to the particle weapon problematic that everyone had encountered."

"I figured as much as well," Marcus said, shifting the 3D view to another image. "That's why I made a detailed render of the part."

Adams looked at the render, his lips curling upward in a greedy display of engineering desire.

"Amazing," he said, then looked up at Marcus. "And you extracted all of this from that Prothean orb computer you picked up on Illium?"

Marcus nodded. "It's more than just a computer, though. It's a memory bank – but for brains. Imagine you now suddenly knew bio-genetics on par with the greatest scientific mind in the field. That's what this thing does. It gives you memories. It's up to you to be smart enough to use them."

"Damn, I wish I could use it then," Adams commented.

"Then you'll be glad to know that I think these orbs could be used by any species," Marcus said with a knowing smirk. "We just need a proper 'adapter'. I've given the orb to Tali and told her what to look for. I think she might surprise us very soon."

"So that's where the little sparks had disappeared to?" Adams said, smirking back. "If anyone can figure that out, it's her."

"That's what I'm counting on," Marcus said more somberly. "Whatever's going on in the Galaxy is too big for the entire Galactic R&D to rely solely on me."

"I hear ya," Adams said. "But even if we did have the detailed schematics, it'd take months, maybe even years, to reverse-engineer them." He then looked over the schematics once more and lifted the datapad to point it out. "You can count on me with this, Commander. You sure have given me something to gnaw on my mind; I know I won't be able to sleep until I figure this one out."

"Take your time," Marcus said, then nodded with his chin toward the swirling mass of eezo core. "With you and Tali to teach them, your men had become quite proficient with the new core. I think you can take your leave from overseeing them and be sure they won't burn the house down."

Adams chuckled. "You can say that again."

"I should go," Marcus said, stepping away from the work bench. "We're about to test the new hover systems."

"Good luck with that, Commander," Adams said with a nod, before stepping away.

Marcus turned and walked from the engineering and into the cargo bay. His eyes scanned the scene.

The cargo bay was a crowded mess. With the two Triton mechs, two Makos, a number of cargo crates on either side and a veritable junkyard of mechanical parts of various sizes, the cargo bay looked more like a skunkworks garage. It felt good seeing it like that. He liked skunkworks.

His ground team specialists were to the side, preparing their gear for the sortie.

"Everything ready?" he called as he approached them.

"Everything is prepared, Shepard," Garrus replied with a nod, then looked to the side. "The hover system is functioning."

Marcus followed his gaze to where one of the Makos stood – or more accurately, hovered some half a meter off the ground. All of its wheels and suspension were completely removed, now laying stacked at one side of the cargo bay, and the Rhinok hover system was installed in their place, along with a set of afterburners at the rear. A set of makeshift armor plates was covering the hover system's sides, providing some basic protection to the set of manifolds and projectors until the proper armor could be designed.

"What are the readings?" Marcus asked.

"The powergrid and the mass effect field are stable," Tali replied from where she stood next to the Hover-Mako, making adjustments on her omni-tool that was interfaced with the machine. "The limited thruster testing we did shows them as functional. We'll just have to see about their power draw once we're planet-side."

"Good," he said, looking around at the assembled team, then at Jaina who joined him to his side. "Looks like we're all ready and set. What do you think? Both teams – one in the modified Hover-Mako and the other in the old, unmodified one, running as support in case shit?"

"No other way to do it," she said, then nodded at the Hover-Mako. "I'll take that one," she said in an already-decided tone. "You've set its control scheme to be akin to a gunship. I fly better than you do, and you'll need a really good pilot in order to be sure there won't be an accident. Doubly so, since it's a brand new and untested prototype."

He nodded, not taking his eyes off the Hover-Mako. "You'll get no argument from me there. You'll still need the engineering team that worked on its systems the most, though. Take Garrus, Tali, and Kaidan with you. I'll take the others with me in the Old-Mako." He then looked to the rest of the assembled team. "Everyone clear on that?"

"Yeah, we're clear," Wrex muttered in annoyance.

Jaina and Marcus folded their arms over their chests as they turned toward the rest of their team.

"Something wrong, Wrex?" she asked.

Wrex looked sullenly at the new vehicle. "I wanted to go."

"I know what you mean," Ash added. "I seem to never get picked to do some fun stuff."

Jaina shared an amused smirk with Marcus.

"You'll get your chance soon enough, we promise," Marcus said patronizingly.

"And the sooner the testing is done, the sooner it can happen," Jaina declared with a motherly tone, then tapped the comms, returning to business. "Joker, what's our status?"

" _Steady orbit at three hundred k, Commander, coming up on the sunward side in little over five minutes. Ready to descend at any moment._ "

Marcus shared a nod with Jaina, and she clapped her hands once.

"Alright, kids, get to your rides!" she declared, making a sweeping ushering motion with her arms.

"Pack up into the Makos, people! Move!" Marcus followed up.

The scuttling of feet echoed across the cargo bay as the ground team specialists walked briskly up to their designated vehicles and piled inside with quick and practiced movements.

The Hover-Mako's hover system held the vehicle even steadier than the suspension of the Old-Mako did as the crew clambered in.

Strapping herself into her seat, Jaina looked around where Garrus, Tali, and Kaidan had settled themselves in the newly-fixed seats, straight behind the driver and shotgun seats. The internal space of the new prototype was severely reduced now. The newly-installed Martelix eezo core along with mass effect field projectors was taking up a huge chunk of space at the rear half of the vehicle, and the previous eight-people capacity of the vehicle was reduced to four, the entire rear half of the vehicle now carrying the sectioned-off Martellix core.

She activated all internal systems, going through the pre-flight checks with a practiced ease of someone who could only have the latent talent in them.

"All systems green, operating at peak capacity," she declared into the comms."

" _Link the feeds into my system. I'll need to monitor the systems from here,_ " Marcus called as he sent out a platoon leader flag on his vehicle.

"Receiving the platoon-leader requisition," she acknowledged as the system indication popped up. "Linking up… System linked up and ready."

" _Thanks,_ " he said, then tapped the general comms. " _Alright, Joker, take us down Standard atmospheric drop, nothing flashy."_

" _Aye-aye, Commander. No-fun way it is!_ " Joker replied instantly.

The Normandy descended into the thin atmosphere of the small planet and decelerated accordingly down to three hundred kph. The yellow warning lights on either side of the cargo bay doors flashed on and the cargo bay ramp slowly lowered, showing the barren vista of an alien world streaming beneath them.

Joker's voice came over the intercom:

" _Assuming constant velocity. Shutting down launch pad inertial fields. Applying aerobrakes brakes in three, two, one – brake!_ "

The aerodynamic surfaces on the Normandy's outer hull flared open, producing mighty drag and decelerating quickly, letting the inertia launch both of the Makos forward and out of its cargo bay.

The two vehicles sailed through the air in a parabolic free fall before they simultaneously braked – the Old Mako applying descent thrusters and the new Hover-Mako boosting its mass effect hover field.

For a fraction of the second, the two vehicles descended toward the earth side-by-side before the Hover-Mako suddenly broke its fall completely, then shot back up like it had bounced back up from a trampoline.

Proximity alarms blared loudly.

"Whoa, release the brakes, release the brakes!" Kaidan shouted as he realized what was gonna happen.

Instead, Jaina slammed them hard into a half-roll, flipping them upside-down and slamming onto the full vertical ascent boost. The Hover-Mako braked hard, just in time for its hover system to deflect it against the oncoming Normandy's belly as the giant frigate pitched hard up in an attempt to avoid the climbing vehicle.

The two vessels missed each other by mere meters as the Normandy slid above it in its frantic pitch, is powerful engine exhausts engulfing the smaller prototype in a violent stream of hot fumes. The Hover-Mako vibrated through the short ordeal as its hover system compensated, the warning alarms signaling the overstress of the kinetic barriers, and then – nothing.

" _Commander, are you alright?!_ " Joker called frantically.

"We're alright, everyone," Jaina called out on the general frequency. "We were just shaken up by the turbulence, nothing major!"

" _You were engulfed in an antiproton fuel jet stream for half a second, Commander,_ " Joker said dryly. " _With all due respect, but that's_ _ **not**_ _what experimental technology should be for! I had to pitch up hard just to avoid colliding with you._ "

"And what an awesome job you've done, Joker! I always knew you had it in you," Jaina replied amusedly, then looked toward the back seat over her shoulder. "See, kids? That's why you have good pilots at the prototype's control sticks."

" _Well, at least I'm appreciated,_ " Joker quipped.

"I was referring to myself," Jaina responded dryly.

" _Oh, come on!_ " Joker complained.

Marcus's deep chuckle carried through the comms:

" _Alright, enough with the chatter,_ " he said. " _We got work to do. Tali, make a note: 'adjust hover system deceleration controls and automation'._ "

"Noted," Tali said dryly as she typed away at her omni-tool.

" _At least we now know that the hover system is good enough for enduring massive pressures and forces,_ " Marcus spoke up. " _So, come down now, let's see what kind of fun we can have on this rock!"_

"Commin' to ya," Jaina responded, angling the vehicle into a descent.

The Hover-Mako maneuvered downward in a gentle arc until it hovered half a meter above ground. Moving solely under the mass effect drive, it joined up with the Old-Mako and the two vehicles throttled up, blasting at full speed across the barren landscape side-by-side.

" _How does it feel like_?" Marcus asked over the comms.

"The drive feels smooth," Jaina commented. "No shakes or tremors. No vibrations. The controls were extremely responsive back up during the near-miss."

"The energy flow and mass effect are both stable," Tali said as she monitored her devices. "Structural integrity is sound." She then chirped happily, "I'd say we're good for more fun!"

"I'm moving away to have more room," Jaina declared, then gently turned to the left, separating from the Old-Mako.

She began turning and banking sharply left and right, pitching up and down, then strafing left-right, up-down, testing as much of the hover system as she could.

"I'm not feeling any of the inertial forces," she said. "The system seems to be very powerful at compensating."

"Maybe it'd be good to have simulated inertial forces inside," Garrus said. "It'd be good to know by feel, rather than just by instruments as to how the vehicle's moving."

"We'd avoid scenarios like just now – accidentally climbing back into the Normandy," Kaidan added.

"I'll adjust the threshold of inertial dampeners a bit so they let the low forces through," Tali said, as she tapped away at her omni-tool. "Try maneuvering now."

Jaina banked to the left, and the crew felt a barely-perceptive tug into the opposite side. She then banked back into the right, hard, adding an extra force into the hover system, and the crew felt a slight jerking tug at their bodies.

"That was an eight-G turn just now," she said, monitoring the instruments.

"Barely felt it," Garrus said appreciatively as he turned to Tali. "That was pretty good! I could maintain perfect control over the gun in full manual mode."

" _Looks solid from what I'm seeing from its systems here,_ " Marcus said over the comms.

"I'm gonna attempt some higher-altitude flight," Jaina declared. "I'm pretty interested in seeing how the hover system performs."

" _Go for it,_ " he encouraged.

Jaina throttled the altitude control, climbing the vehicle full thousand meters above local ground using hover systems alone, and then maintained altitude.

"Everything seems stable," she said, then maneuvered some more, performing banking, rolling and looping maneuvers. "The controls are responsive. My instruments show minimum oversteer or understeer."

"Jaina, we might want to consider descending," Tali said. "I'm detecting an increased heat buildup in the hover system."

"Understood," Jaina said, then promptly maneuvered the vehicle into a dive, quickly descending down to a couple of feet above the ground. "How's it look now?"

Tali nodded. "It looks to be stabilizing. I think that too much maneuvering on high altitudes can overstress the system; nothing that a few dedicated heat sinks couldn't handle."

Ashley suddenly spoke over the comm: " _Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that hover system supposed to be used for hours on gas giant lifters, and that it needs to maneuver through powerful atmospheric turbulences? It should be able to fly you out of the atmosphere. Why did it overheat now?"_

"True, but those lifters have massive heat sinks," Kaidan said. "We have completely removed those from these hover systems."

" _I have taken that into consideration when I designed the Scorpion plans_ ," Marcus said. " _I had planned to use the oversized eezo core to rig a similar heat sink system like I've used on our weapons_."

"And that's why we have this oversized eezo core, right here," Tali said motioning to the crudely walled-off compartment behind her.

"Say, Tali," Garrus called to her, "are we good for another high-altitude climb?"

"We are," she said as she checked out the head readings.

" _What are you thinking_?" Marcus asked from the other vehicle.

"No, it's not like that; it's just that there was a blip on the radar," the turian responded. "I think I've detected something on the broad area scanners when we were all the way up there." He then addressed Jaina, "Can you climb us up and keep us there for a few moments longer?"

Jaina nodded and gently began lifting the vehicle upward, keeping an eye on the heat gauge. The Hover-Mako rose to about a thousand meters of altitude where Garrus activated the broad range scan.

"Definitely something out there," he said as he examined the signal, switching to a directed narrow-band scan toward a point of interest. "There," he said as he brought the scan onto the main screen. "At ninety-five degrees, ten clicks distance, just behind that edge. The identification system marks it as either a mangled prefab building or a small transport ship."

"A vessel or a vehicle, most likely," Jaina commented as she viewed the feed. "Can our optics show a clearer visual?"

Garrus switched to main gun's targeting optics and zoomed in toward the object. He shook his head.

"Something is there, obviously, but I can only see its top from this angle," he said. "It does look like a vehicle or a crashed ship, but I'm not sure about the model."

"Is it just me, or does that thing resemble a UT-47?" Kaidan asked as he observed the image.

"If it is, then it fits alliance color scheme," She murmured as she observed the feed grimly.

" _That shouldn't happen_ ," Marcus commented. " _The Alliance doesn't have any presence in this system other than an occasional frigate patrol. This cluster is secluded from any major routes. The closest base is on Therum_."

"I agree. Something's fishy here," she declared, directing the Hover-Mako into a descent. "Did you happen to hear someone say that this planet was important for anything?" she asked.

" _No, nothing,_ " he replied, just as grimly. " _What about you? What did the navigation charts say about the world again?_ "

"Nothing," she replied. "Edolus is a silicate sand wasteland, unbreathable atmo, and under constant meteor showers. The initial flyby probes haven't even shown any mineral wealth whatsoever. Not even wildcat miners are interested in this place _._ "

Marcus hummed, then tapped the comms to Normandy.

" _Joker, have you achieved a stable orbit?_ " he asked.

" _Just this second, Commander,_ " the voice came.

"Then break out those hyper sensors and train them toward the planet," Jaina commanded. "We want deep scans, but start from the area we're about to send you the coordinates for. There's something on the surface, and we want to know what it is."

" _Aye-aye, ma'am, sir,_ " the pilot called and went to work just as the Hover-Mako touched down next to the Old-Mako, the two vehicles driving silently side by side across the desert wasteland.

" _Uh, Commanders, you're not gonna like this,_ " Joker called. " _That thing down there is a standard alliance UT-47, complete with all the markings. It appears to belong to the 12_ _th_ _Flotilla, under Admiral Kahoku. And it's heavily damaged. There are bodies around it. Their armor is the standard Alliance Marines gear."_

"Dammit," Kaidan cursed. Marcus and Jaina just listened on grimly.

" _And there's something more,_ " Joker continued. " _There appears to be an Alliance distress beacon right at their location coming from a derelict ground vehicle next to the shuttle, but the distress signal's coding itself does not come from the Alliance. Those men must've been sent to see what the distress signal was about._ "

Jaina spoke up: "That doesn't make any sense. This system is isolated. There was no way that a distress call could reach another system. And even if it did, why would anyone send only one ordinary Marine squad in nothing but a Kodiak all the way out here?"

" _No idea_ ," Marcus replied. " _But this hover system test run just got a lot more interesting. Joker, you keep the deep scan of the planet, but keep a lookout for what's going on in the system. Keep the stealth field up, you hear!_ "

" _You don't have to tell me twice, sir,_ " he replied and went silent.

" _Jaina, we're going down there_ , _fast pace,_ " Marcus ordered.

"How quickly do you think your Mako can get us there."

" _At this terrain? One and a half clicks per minute._ "

"Alright. We'll stay close to you and perform occasional high altitude sorties."

The two vehicles changed direction slightly and proceeded with maximum possible speed toward the sight of the disaster. The terrain was mostly flat or rolling sandy ground, with rocky hills and outcroppings spread throughout. It was here that Old-Mako's all-road capabilities were shown in full light. The APC was devouring distance at ninety kph, with Hover-Mako trailing close next to it. Every couple of kilometers, Jaina would lift his vehicle a few hundred meters into the air, surveying the seemingly barren area.

When they were about one kilometer from the disaster site, and both vehicles descending down toward it from the nearby ridge, Marcus's inner warning bells began ringing like crazy.

"All stop!" he shouted over the comms, applying brakes and drifting down into an emergency halt.

Jaina's Hover-Mako banked hard mid-air, drifting, then descending down in a vertical pitch before it rolled around to where Marcus had stopped his vehicle.

"What have you seen?" she called.

Instead of answering her, Marcus called to his vehicle's companion:

"Wrex, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" he spoke as he scanned the area around the disaster site.

"Yeah _,_ " came the battlemaster's grim voice. "That Kodiak is sitting in the middle of a thresher maw nest."

"A thresher maw nest?!" Ashley exclaimed. "How can you be sure?"

"Only the thresher maw leaves those huge mounds of dirt and those kinds of trenches on the surface," he replied. "Trust me, I should know."

Marcus nodded in agreement, examining the local area and thinking up a course of action.

"The threshers like to perform assault down-up from the ground. They've been known to tear the Mako in half when they launch up, and they're precise as hell; we don't stand a chance in hell if we go down there on wheels."

"So you don't," Jaina spoke up. "We have the altitude and the maneuverability. We'll go in and act as a decoy. Once the bestie is up, we both turn on it – you sniping from the distance and us from above."

"Hmm… it'll have to do," he agreed, a grim frown on his face. "Otherwise, we can't get down there, and there's no way we're leaving our own fallen behind." He scanned the area left and right, then came to a conclusion. "We're taking that rocky high ground to the right and snipe it out with our main gun from the ledge. That's where we're safest. You go down there and draw the beastie out."

"Understood _,_ " she said grimly, throttling up the hover systems as she rose higher up.

Marcus revved up the engine, the Old-Mako's tires spinning mightily as they lifted a cloud of sand, spinning a vehicle and launching it toward the rocky ledge.

Jaina tracked them until the other vehicle was safely on the rock and the vehicle set up for long-range sniping.

"Alright, we'll be going in," she said. "Keep your eyes peeled."

"I'm heading out, too," Wrex spoke up, moving up from his seat in the Old Mako and popping up the hatch. "I'm going to set up next to the tank with my machinegun, as well _._ "

"Good thinking," Marcus said.

"We could use every gun we have for this," Jaina murmured as the Hover-Mako glided across the sands, approaching the site. She then tapped a command, and the main thrusters they had installed along with the hover system came to life. "And every other edge at our disposal," she added.

"We intended to test those thrusters anyway," Tali said with a shrug. "Might as well be now."

The Hover-Mako reached the disaster site, hovering a couple of meters above the ground. The ground looked like it was ploughed with a giant machine, and torn human bodies were littering the surface.

"How come the thresher maw didn't eat them?" Kaidan asked as he watched the scene of carnage.

"Thresher maws like to leave their victims where they killed them," Wrex spoke into the comms as he scoped the area from where he set up the biped machinegun stand in a prone position. "It may attract other predators or scavengers that the thresher maw can also then eat. Besides, the thresher maw does not need to eat flesh to survive. It absorbs radiation and consumes minerals from the ground. Its guts work like a reactor."

"I think I know what might have happened here," Garrus said as his eyes darted around the scene, examining the details. "See that wreck over there?" he said pointing with his chin. "That looks like an M29 Grizzly, badly mauled. The distress signal is coming from there. The marines came down with the shuttle and walked out to examine what is going on; they must not have known they were walking into the middle of a thresher maw nest. The thresher maw must've attacked the Kodiak first. Otherwise, a pilot would have lifted off. Then, it was easy pickings with the rest of the marines."

An alarm started beeping on the sensor console. Jaina shifted the external view camera and directed it toward the point that the sensors were alerting her to, only to see dirt beneath their vehicle shift.

She punched the throttle of the hover system violently, pitching the vehicle's nose upward and ascending rapidly just as the dirt beneath them surged upward and then exploded with a thunderous roar. The thresher maw surged straight up after the shuttle, spreading its mandibled jaw widely as it roared, trying to catch the ascending Hover-Mako.

Punching the controls, Jaina gave a full power to the rear thrusters, blasting the thresher maw's face with the roaring flames and making it screech out in pain just as its jaws snapped shut. Just as it did, a high-velocity round from Marcus's Mako from up on the cliffs slammed into the beast's neck with a violent impulse.

The round impact worked like a fist punch into the beast's side, swaying it in the air and making it drop down like a humongous log. The thresher maw caught itself with its huge scythed front claws as it struck the ground, just as a hailstorm of heavy machinegun rounds started peppering it – from both Mako's coaxial machinegun and Wrex's Devastator.

Jaina spun the Hover-Mako in the air, turning the nose downward, making the vehicle hover, and letting Garrus take aim with the main gun. The thresher maw had already begun pulling back into its burrow with speed that bellied its size but failed to hide before Garrus managed to hit it from the vehicle's main gun.

Liara's voice came through for the first time:

"By the Goddess, how tough are those creatures?"

"Very," Wrex growled out succinctly.

"It's moving through the ground," Kaidan said as they watched the ground beneath the Hover-Mako ripple.

The thresher maw broke the surface once more, but instead of trying to surge after the levitating vehicle, it angled its giant head toward it and launched a green projectile at the Hover-Mako with a burst of pressurized gas. The projectile surged toward it with impressive speed, only narrowly missing the moving vehicle.

Another projectile slammed into the beast's side from the Old-Mako, disrupting it from launching any further acid spike volleys and giving Garrus the opening to finally finish it off with the shot from the Hover-Mako's main gun. The final projectile slammed with turian precision straight through the massive beast's gaping and unarmored mouth, the impulse shock gouging through its cranium with absolute damage, making green acidic blood burst forth from numerous orifices from the internal pressure shockwave.

The thresher maw swayed like a limp hose, finally slamming down onto the ground and raising a cloud of sand before Garrus launched one final round down into it, just for good measure.

"Dead and done, just the way I like 'em," Wrex declared proudly.

"Do you think there might be other thresher maws around?" Jaina asked.

"If there are, the closest one would be at least a hundred kilometers out," Wrex said. "Thresher maws are solitary and highly territorial. Trust me, this one here is the only one we're gonna find."

"That's a relief," Liara commented into the comms. "I've never encountered a live thresher maw before, and I did a lot of travels."

"If you did, you'd be dead, kid," Wrex replied in a no-nonsense tone.

"And I, for one, am glad that that did not happen," Marcus stated firmly. "Now, Wrex, board up. We're heading down here. Let's try to find out what happened down here."

"I'm descending down," Jaina declared as she directed the Hover-Mako into a descent, just as the Old-Mako rolled down from the cliffs after Wrex climbed aboard.

A couple of minutes later, all eight of them were strolling amongst the wreckage, examining the situation in close regard.

"How long ago do you think this happened?" Marcus asked Garrus as they examined one of the Marine's bodies.

"Hard to say," Garrus replied as they both crouched next to it. "There are no scavengers here, no insects, only indigenous microbes that don't exactly know how to decompose an alien body. Judging from the tissue mummification process, I'd have to say it was two-to-three weeks ago.

"Marcus, you're not gonna like this," Jaina called. "I've checked these Marine's IDs, and they're all N3-s."

"An autonomous unit?" Garrus queried.

"Yeah," Marcus nodded.

"What does that mean?" Liara asked.

"N-ranking," Kaidan said. "Men that go through it are usually deployed together in specialized teams and units based on their final N-ranking. N1-s are special weapons and tactics. N2 is a higher level of that, and they get assigned to spec-ops ships – like Miller's squad is on the Normandy. N3 is still a higher level of that, and they're semi-autonomous. They get a small armed and armored transport ship and they go about performing high-level, high-risk missions."

"We're talking black ops here," Marcus said as he was crouching next to the body, observing it. "The N3-s receive missions from a task force commander, or higher."

"Which in this case should be Kahoku," Jaina said with a frown and shook her head. "But if that's the case, then why have they been left here to rot for three weeks? Judging by their gear and supplies they brought, this was supposed to be a quick mission – two or three days tops! Someone in their command should have noticed something had gone awry long ago."

"I don't like this one bit, Marcus," Garrus said. "This has all the hallmarks of an intentional sabotage."

"What about that distress signal that got them here?" Marcus asked, turning around to look at what were mangled remains of the out-of-place M29.

"Here," Tali said, approaching him and raising her omni-tool. "The signal was coming from a rigged distress beacon inside the Grizzly. It's broadcasting on a military frequency, but it doesn't use the standard Alliance codes. It's something else entirely."

Garrus looked at Marcus. "My gut feeling tells me that these marines knew what that signal was about. That's why they came looking for it specifically."

Marcus ground his teeth as he contemplated things sharing a grim look with Jaina.

He tapped the comms.

"Joker, have you found anything out about this rock we're on?" he demanded. "Tell us everything, and don't spare the details."

" _Aye-aye, Commander,"_ the pilot reported back. " _There don't seem to be any real artificial constructs on this planet. The only other thing we have detected is a probe that has crashed on the southern hemisphere, but that one looks like an ancient turian survey flyby probe model; must've been there for centuries."_

"And anything of natural value?" Jaina queried.

" _Well, Edolus does seem to be rich in regard of ores,_ " Joker said. " _Lots of heavy, light, and rare metals all across the board, and it seems to be quite accessible. But that's about it."_

"I thought this world was supposed to be bereft of valuable minerals," Marcus said, turning to Jaina and sharing a confused look with her.

" _Yeah, that's what all of those dull civilian survey scans think,_ " Joker spoke smugly. " _A few meters of this particular type of silicate sand is enough to confuse ordinary mining scanners, but that's not the case with our baby here. The Normandy uses the Pulsar resonance scanner. It makes everything flare up like a Christmas tree!"_

Kaidan shook his head. "I kinda doubt this was about some mining rights, Commander," he said. "You don't send the N3-s in the middle of nowhere to go protect prospecting interests."

"I agree," Jaina said, crossing her arms. "If we want answers, we're gonna have to go to Admiral Kahoku."

Marcus nodded. "Alright, Joker, bring the ship down. We're bringing these men back home for a proper burial."

" _Aye-aye, Commander,_ " the man replied and ended the comm.

"Is everyone ready?" Marcus said as he cast a look over the assembled teammates and then frowned, looking around. "Where's Wrex?"

Everyone turned to look around each other searchingly.

"Umm…" Garrus spoke up, looking somewhere off to the side behind Marcus and pointing with his finger.

Everyone turned to see Wrex shuffling out from behind the mangled shuttle, a huge scythed thresher maw claw trailing behind him as he dragged it along.

"Wrex?" Marcus asked as the burly battlemaster lumbered past him.

"Shepard," the krogan responded noncommittally.

"What's with the thresher claw, Wrex?" Jaina prodded on.

Wrex stopped and turned to look at her and Marcus in confusion, and then down at the claw.

"Well it's kinda obvious," the battlemaster said, motioning in circles with his free hand. When no one responded, he said, "Don't you humans decorate your ships with trophies of the things you killed?"

"Uh… no, we don't?" Ashley said pointedly.

"Well, you do now," he replied and continued dragging the claw toward the Old-Mako.

The rest of Shepards' teammates looked amongst each other with a mixed assembly of both incredulous and amused looks.

"Hmm…" Marcus mused.

"Skipper?" Ashley queried uncertainly. "Not to sound like a stickler for Alliance regs, but… don't you think hanging dead carcasses in our ship might be a bit too much?"

"What are you thinking?" Jaina asked from next to him with a smirk in her voice.

"I'm thinking of how the Normandy would look like wearing Sovereign's armor after we flay it off of him," he declared.

There was a moment of utter silence.

"I could rig that to work!" Tali declared with a happy chirp.

"That's the spirit," he said smiling down at her. "As for the trophies – We'll allow it, as long as you report it to me or Jaina, first. Hey, Wrex!"

"Ya?" The krogan hollered back from where he was tying the thresher limb on the Mako.

"You're the resident trophy expert," Marcus declared. "Make sure you scrub the trophy from all the acid blood and stuff it properly. The same will go for any other trophy we might bring on board."

"Sure," the krogan replied with a shrug.

"Alright then," Marcus nodded as he looked skyward toward where the Normandy could be seen piercing the skies as it descended. "Time to get to work."

* * *

 _._

 _One hour later; Normandy's cargo hold._

 _._

Doctor Chakwas's omni-tool was chirping continuously as the good doctor crouched next to the body of a dead marine, passing the scanner across the remains. Somber sadness was etched on her face. The omni-tool beeped, and she checked the readings before rose from her crouch and sighed.

"That was the last of them," she said. "It's pretty clear, Commander. All of these men were killed by a thresher maw."

"Thank you, Doctor," Marcus said as he scrutinized the dozen body bags arranged in two rows in the corner of the Normandy's hold. "That'll be all."

Chakwas nodded and wordlessly left toward the elevator. Marcus waited a bit, watching her go before he crouched next to the closest body bag and frowned at it. Ever since he witnessed the scene where the carnage happened, there was a sensation in the back of his mind that nagged at him, and that odd tingle in his palms that he had been aware of ever since that day on Illium.

He chewed on his lip, and then he reached out and opened the body bag. He looked down at the body, and slowly reached out with his hand, passing it near the surface of the body, and concentrated. A flurry of strong sensations originating from the body surged into the back of his mind. The panic. The terror. A flurry of the last, strongest images, before the man died. A murky image, but it carried an unmistakable silhouette and the clear roar of a thresher maw surging out of the ground. Screams of soldiers.

Marcus took his hand back and breathed.

It was just like Akuze. It was a long time ago, but he could recognize it anywhere, anytime. But this new ability was what his mind was interested in much more than old memories.

It was true. Liara had mentioned before that she had sensed during their meld that the Cipher was much more than just transferring memories of the Protheans. This new ability was there along with it. Sifting through the memories of the Beacon, he realized that that information about this ability was always there. It was innate to the Protheans, and now, it was a part of him as well.

Only, it was still developing. Still settling in.

He licked his lips. There was no telling what it would do once it was fully developed. It could be a boon or it could be a hindrance. A part of him was telling him the former, though… This thing could be a major asset. A ghost of a smile appeared for a moment in the corner of his lips before he reached out and closed the body bag, then stood up and left.

...

* * *

 _ **...**_

 _ **ON ANOTHER NOTE**_ _ **(rant, actually):**_

 _ **I hope someone develops some face mods for ME: Andromeda real soon after it's out. About the only female face I like among all that I've seen there is Vetra.**_

 _ **What - I want my super hotties like Miranda and Kelly were in ME2, and like Yen, and Triss, and Keira, and Frangilla, and – hell, even my girl Ciri – are in Witcher 3. Don't look at me like that, you know I'm right! Isn't that what games are supposed to be about ever since ever?**_

 _ **What was that? Oh – realism, is that it? Ugly women are more realistic and not sexist, which is what gaming industry needs to become? That right? Oh, I see. Well, piss off! If I wanted to look at ugly women, I'd go clubbing! - and that's how I feel about Cora, Sarah, Lexi, and pretty much every other female face I've seen in Andromeda. Even Peebee – I mean, yeah, she could be cute, but what's with the raccoon face?**_

 _ **Yeah, I'm superficial when it comes to virtual gaming girls – deal with it!**_

 _ **-End rant.-**_

 _ **OH! And I had placed an ME3 scene in this chapter! Bah, why do I bother - of course you've already noticed it!**_

 _ **In any case, the rev/fav/fol has grown to 176/268/306 - YAY! I have more than 300 follows! I feel like a special entitled snowflake all of a sudden! NOT! :D**_

 ** _[Chuckles] Thanks guys, though, really. The fact that I'm getting reviews and am being followed feels good - you know. It kinda feels like one of those small successes in life that make it awesome. So, thanks for being generous, and I hope you keep that up if you like my chapters._**

 ** _See ya later, (but hopefully not much later, ehehe)..._**


	20. Chapter 20 - Hades' Dogs

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _ **So, you liked the initial stages of the Mako's transformation into an armored hover assault vehicle? Yep, that's right – early stages. Yeah… by the time the Scorpion's fully done, the Nomad will have nothing on it! :)**_

 _ **Hmm... although, there were quite fewer reviews than usual... it must've been an exceptionally uninteresting chapter, I reckon... can't think of why, though, because I know I'm awesome. Ah, well, guess I'll just have to be even awesomer in the future!**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 6.3.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes (to an extent), Economic themes (there are some), Intrigue (a bit o' that, too)…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 20 – Hades' Dogs**

.

 _Eight hours later; orbit around Therum…_

"Admiral, we have an incoming transmission," the call came. "They're asking for you, specifically."

Kahoku sighed tiredly, looking nearly haggard. "Is it from that idiot, Ming, again?" he asked.

"No, sir," came a somber response. "It's from Commander Marcus Shepard, CO of the SSV Normandy SR-1. The communiqué is carrying Spectre credentials."

That got Kahoku's attention. "What does _he_ want with me?" he asked with genuine interest.

"Didn't say, sir. He demands a Level 5 security protocol."

Kahoku frowned in concentration, then looked to his personal terminal.

"Link him to my quarters," he said. "Establish a secure connection."

"Aye-aye, sir," the officer replied.

Kahoku inputted a series of codes into his terminal and then activated the comms. The screen promptly showed Marcus's face.

"Admiral," he greeted with a nod.

"Commander," Admiral greeted him back. "What does the first human Spectre want from me?"

"Admiral, there is a very important matter on which I need to speak with you about," Marcus said. "There is a high level of security involved, however. Is it possible for us to meet on the Normandy?"

"Hmm," Kahoku mused. "I suppose that would be for the best. How far is your ship out?"

"We're already on approach to link up into formation with your task force, Admiral," Marcus replied.

"Good," Kahoku said with a nod and looked at his watch. "Dock with the Tereshkova. I'll be coming aboard your ship in fifteen minutes."

"Understood," Marcus said. "Shepard out."

.

Fifteen minutes later, Kahoku was coming down the docking corridor that connected his carrier with the Normandy. When he entered the ship, Marcus and Jaina were waiting for him, giving him a military salute as he entered. Kahoku greeted them back before he sighed.

"Well, Commander, here I am," he said. "Frankly, I'm glad to have a chance to speak with you. I too have something I hope to discuss with you; perhaps we could help each other out?"

"Perhaps," Marcus said, inclining his head. "Though what I'm about to show you is a very serious matter. Follow me to the cargo bay, please."

Admiral nodded and moved to follow them. He took note of the unorthodox internal design as they passed through the CIC, crew deck, and went down into the cargo bay. It was there that once they rounded the skunkworks junkyard and the parked Makos, Admiral drew to a halt.

Twelve sealed body bags were spread out evenly across one section of the floor. Kahoku had a sinking feeling in his guts. Marcus motioned him wordlessly to one of the body bags, where he crouched and unsealed it, opening the body of the marine it held to Kahoku's eyes.

Kahoku's gaze hardened, and he sighed tiredly as he pressed his thumb into his throbbing temple, rubbing his forehead with the rest of his fingers at the same time.

"All twelve of them?" he asked grimly.

"Yes," Marcus replied as he resealed the bag and straightened up, scrutinizing Kahoku's facial expression carefully. "Were you even aware they were dead, Admiral?"

Kahoku sighed. It seemed to be his trademark as of late.

"I suspected as much," he said as he swept the body bags with his gaze. "Where did you find them? What had happened to them?"

Marcus shared a look with Jaina.

"We found them on Edolus, in the Sparta system," she said. "They were killed by a thresher maw."

"Edolus?!" Kahoku said incredulously. "What were they doing on Edolus? There's nothing there!"

"We were hoping you would tell us," Marcus said. "We went to Edolus to test some of our new systems away from prying eyes. What we found were their bodies." He looked at Kahoku with a discerning gaze. "What is going on, Admiral?"

Kahoku was silent for a few moments, looking off to the side, and then he spoke:

"Eighteen days ago, I received a confirmation that my N3-s had sortied out under total blackout to investigate a distress signal as per my orders," he then looked straight at Marcus. "Except that I hadn't made any such orders."

He let that sink in for a moment, and then he continued.

"By the time I realized what had happened, twelve of my men had gone missing, and I didn't even know where they had gone to, or who had issued the orders. I had sent two of the N7-s that were attached to my fleet, Halid and Ramirez, to work with the Alliance intelligence to try to figure out what had happened, but neither of them had had any luck. It was a damn wild goose chase for over two weeks. I was being stonewalled at every step. This, in fact, was the matter on which I had wanted to speak to you about, Shepard. I wanted your help and resources as a Spectre to help me find my men. Now, though…"

Marcus stepped toward the Admiral and spoke gravely:

"I think it's time you explain just what is going on, Admiral."

"I suppose it is," Kahoku said tiredly. "Can we do this somewhere more comfortable? There is a lot we need to discuss."

Marcus nodded. "We'll talk in my quarters. Follow me."

Marcus led Kahoku to his quarters and bid him to sit at the small dining table that was set there, and then joined him together with Jaina, to what Kahoku looked questioningly at her.

"Commander Jaina Shepard is my wife, Admiral," Marcus said. "The post comes directly from Admiral Hackett, and it was quite purposefully made, I assure you. She shares all of the Spectre mission details that I am undergoing. Whatever you are to say is safe with us."

Kahoku was brought up short.

"I was not aware of that," he said in surprise. "Hmm… interesting… That actually gives me comfort, Commander, believe it or not. Well…" the man sighed again and leaned with his elbows against the desk. "This all began a few weeks back when one of my N3 teams found a body of one Armistan Banes on a derelict freighter."

"What's so special about him?" Jaina queried.

Kahoku seemed to think on things, wordlessly motioning with his hands in the air, as if he was trying to figure out the best way to begin the story.

"Armistan Banes was connected to an organization called Cerberus," he said at last. "This organization was 'founded' in the period that immediately followed the First Contact War, before Humanity established its Citadel Embassy. Their mandate was to protect and progress Humanity in the face of the threats in the Galaxy."

Marcus frowned. "I believe I had heard some whispers about them in the upper echelons," he said.

"They were supposed to be a shadow group," Jaina said, sharing a look with him. "Very hush-hush. Very high level."

"Yeah, I remember now," Marcus continued, turning to Kahoku: "Cerberus was supposed to have ties with the highest levels of the Alliance Intelligence Brass, but they were never officially part of the Alliance."

"Precisely," Kahoku said, tilting his head sideways. "This was a black-on-black kind of thing."

"A kill squad?" Jaina asked discerningly.

Kahoku snorted bitterly. "If Cerberus was a mere kill squad, we wouldn't need to talk right now." He shook his head. "No. Cerberus is an entire fully independent organization. I'm talking multi-lateral spectrum of interests and activities: weapons systems R&D, advanced technology research, genetic engineering, supersoldier experimentation, even in-depth Prothean archaeological studies, and I suspect it goes even further than that. It was all protected by their own armed corps, and funded by their own _private_ funds."

Marcus and Jaina shared a look of grim surprise.

"Are you f… are you serious?" Marcus demanded. "That goes far beyond anything that had ever been implied about them that anyone of us had ever heard."

"Oh yes," Kahoku said listlessly. "I'm pretty. Damn. Sure."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Jaina said with a frown as she rounded up on Kahoku. "The Alliance Military should know better than to cooperate with an organization such as that to a level of black-ops operation which is implied!"

"They did know better," Kahoku said. "But, like I said, this was right after the First Contact War. We had seen the overwhelming power of the other species and were afraid. We were feeling inadequate – one of the worst feelings one can have in life, don't you agree?"

Marcus rumbled deep in his throat, thinking. "I never deluded myself that the Alliance is a shining beacon of 'paragonship' – so to speak – but not even I thought they would go this far." He nodded toward Kahoku. "So, you say that was the reason why they signed the pact with the Devil?"

"Essentially – yes," Kahoku said.

"So, this whole thing with Armistan Banes and your men getting killed ties directly to Cerberus?" Jaina asked perceptively, then nodded toward him with her chin. "What happened to make Cerberus start killing the Alliance personnel?"

"Times have changed," Kahoku said with a shrug. "The Alliance is no longer an underdog; we have caught up with the rest of the species to a sufficient degree that we are no longer 'inadequate' and that everyone must consider our position. With that, the younger generation of the Alliance Brass felt that Cerberus was no longer needed, and with the old Admirals and Generals that had originally made that unofficial pact with Cerberus simply aging and dying, well…" Kahoku shrugged.

"Admiral Clarkson was the last one of that bunch," he continued after a moment. "With him getting killed three months ago, Cerberus severed its ties with the Alliance. They went completely rogue."

"Rogue?" Marcus repeated, then snorted derisively. "The way I see it, that organization was never a part of the Alliance in the first place. They're not 'rogue'; they're just a beast that someone failed to realize how dangerous it was, and now it is loose."

"Call it whatever you will," Kahoku said. "The point is that there is nothing that ties them to the Alliance anymore. Though, in truth, those 'ties' might have been nothing more than a gimmick since the day one."

"How did you get mixed up in this whole business with them, Admiral?" Jaina asked.

"If you're asking me how I know of Cerberus, I can answer you that every Admiral is acquainted about Cerberus once he or she reaches the rank," he said. "If, however, you're asking me how this thing led to my men being killed…"

"The second," Jaina said.

"Well, it was not by my intent, I assure you," Kahoku said bitterly. "My men had found a freighter on which Banes's body was located by pure chance. On him, there was a set of data files detailing some of Cerberus's activities and plans. Cerberus knew what had happened the moment I sent feelers into the Alliance channels. Their moles must be buried deep."

"And how does killing twelve N3-s link into the whole picture?" Marcus asked.

"It was a diversion, plain and simple," Kahoku said. "Those twelve men would have been the spec-ops force that would lead the raid to Cerberus locations that were revealed in the file. Eliminating them was like poking us in the eye – not lethal, and we'd still had all our facilities intact, but it would instantly force us to back off to nurse the eye. By killing those men, they had us scrambling to see what was going on – with us being temporarily blinded and disabled – while they evacuate their assets. It was actually a pretty clever plan and easy to accomplish. Shows Cerberus has a lot of skilled mindsets. Here…"

Kahoku activated his omni-tool and brought up a folder stacked up with files. He then motioned with his chin to his omni-tool.

"Take these files, Commander," he said, and Marcus moved to comply. "These were found on Banes's body. A lot of Cerberus assets are listed in there. Many of them are scattered throughout the Skillian Verge. I recon most of them will be gone by now, though some of them might not have been quick enough."

Marcus deposited the files into his own omni-tool and then locked his piercing gaze with Kahoku's, searching for what was left unsaid.

"So, why are you telling me all this, Admiral?" he asked.

"Because, Commander, my N3-s were sent to their deaths by faked orders which we cannot trace, and which came from within our own ranks," Kahoku said grimly. "Taking into account how long Cerberus was taking part in the inner workings of the Alliance Military, their reach must be vast. Nobody in the Alliance can be safe with these files. Not even my life is safe anymore.

"You, however, are something else entirely, Commander, because _you_ are, at the moment, the most powerful human in the Galaxy. You are not dependent on anyone bar the Council, and the Council cares more about diplomatic stability than shadow operations. You are the only one I can entrust these files to."

Marcus clenched his jaw and tightened his lips, looking off to the side as he made internal calculations.

"My search for Saren takes priority, Admiral," he said at last. "No matter how much I'd like to punish those that had ambushed the Alliance soldiers in such a grizzly manner, Saren is by far the greatest threat this Galaxy has known for the past fifty thousand years."

Kahoku raised his hand placatingly. "I understand, Commander. I am only glad that a burden has been taken off of my shoulders." He then stood up. "Now, if there is nothing else for us to talk about, I need to organize the transportation of the bodies of my men. Some other preparations should be considered as well."

Marcus and Jaina followed Kahoku as he stood up and then walked him out of the Normandy.

.

"Pressly," Marcus called as he and Jaina returned to the CIC sometime later, "break us off from the 12th and set a course for Gemini Sigma."

"Aye-aye, Commander," Pressly replied and set about to working his navigation console as Marcus and Jaina left the CIC toward the crew deck.

"So, whaddaya think?" Jaina asked as they settled back into their quarters a few minutes later, him leaning back comfily in a chair and her sitting at the edge of their bed.

"Truth?" Marcus asked rhetorically, raising his eyebrows as he looked on into the distance, his hands on the back of his head. "I'm thinking about Normandy being clad in Reaper armor."

Jaina made a long, exasperated snort, rolling her eyes, and fell back onto their bed. He laughed out loud.

"That thing again?" she said in amused exasperation. "We can't be even sure that the thing's armor is _that_ powerful. All we do have are visions from the Beacon – and for all we know, Protheans might very well have been using inferior weapons to ours."

"Do you really believe that?" he asked, looking at her.

She sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "No, I suppose not," she said, then looked at him. "But that whole thing with the Reapers has gone to a cold dead end at this point, hasn't it?"

"True," he said, nodding, then thought a bit in silence. "You wanted to know my thoughts on the current situation we're in, don't you – about the trail of Saren going cold, and Kahoku now giving us this intel on Cerberus?"

She turned, lying on her side with her elbow against the mattress and leaning her chin against the hand.

"Well, until either Council's intelligence or Liara's fledgling network come up with something, we're stuck without much to do," she said. "And that's not the state we want to keep our crew in. Or ourselves in, for that matter."

"You're right; it isn't," he agreed. "We need to stay sharp and ready for when we do find Saren, and sitting around won't help that."

"Precisely," she said sagely. "We need to find assignments upon which we can practice, upon which we need to improve our state of readiness."

"The assignments would need to be of great variety," he took his cue. "We need to find enemies that have various expertise, utilize various combat skills and tactics. We need to be ready for anything and everything because that's what Saren is going to send against us."

"And we need to work more on our own people," she said. "We need to _constantly_ work on our people, improving them, their skills and their gear whenever possible."

"So, how do we find these assignments?" he asked what was on both of their minds.

"Hackett has already indicated that the Alliance might have some requests for us," she said. "Remember the mission on Luna?"

"Yeah, but Luna was one mission, and new ones might or might not come any time soon," he said worriedly. "We might finish with this Cerberus business quickly, and then what? I'd rather have too many missions waiting for me than have none at all."

"I know what you mean," she replied, then puffed her hair bangs out of the way. She frowned in thought. "What if we were to seek out missions of our own?"

He looked at her from the corner of his eye. "What do you have in mind?"

"I am actually thinking about Liara's network," Jaina said.

The two of them shared a long look and watched as identical thoughts flashed in each other's eyes, forming and silently sharing the idea.

"Come on," she said, hopping from the bed and patting him with both hands impatiently on the shoulder as he rose with her. "Let's go run this through Liara."

The two of them walked out of their quarters and walked across the crew deck toward the medical bay. They exchanged a passing nod with Doctor Chakwas before they tapped the yellow entrance hologram of Liara's quarters. A couple seconds later, the hologram beeped and turned green when Liara called 'enter', and the doors opened.

As they came in, they spotted Liara sitting at her terminal, turning her head to see who was coming in. A look of relief could be seen in her eyes, and the frown of concern washed away from her pretty face as she hopped up from her chair.

Suddenly, all three of them spoke up at the same moment, speaking the nearly identical words:

" _ **Oh, good, you're here! We/I need your help**_ _._ "

The three of them stood for a second, looking at each other in utter confusion.

"Th-That was unusual," Liara commented in slight confusion.

Marcus and Jaina smiled, sharing a quick look before they turned to Liara.

"Looks like that meld we had a few days ago might have put something from ours into your mind, huh?" Jaina said rhetorically, then waved it off for confused Liara. "Ah, don't worry, Marcus and I do that all the time. So – the problem?"

"Ah, yes, that's right," Liara spoke slowly, making a deep sigh before she pointed with her hand at her terminal, motioning them to follow her. "It's about my information network we have established," she said as she sat down in front of it, with Marcus and Jaina leaning down on either side of her, looking interestedly at the screen.

"What seems to be the issue?" Marcus asked.

"Does it not work as we expected?" Jaina assumed.

"Actually, the network is working _better_ than we expected," she said, raising her eyebrows and sounding cutely troubled. "And that's the problem."

"Come again?" Jaina asked in bewilderment.

Liara opened an inbox of various messages, all of them neatly and intuitively arranged through various categories.

"I know we have initiated the making of this information network for the sake of finding Benezia," she started. "But, since Benezia is so well hidden, I had asked of all of my contacts to send any and all information that might seem even a bit relevant to either Benezia's current location or her movements, and I had instructed them to employ any of their own contacts that might also come across this info, citing that there might be something in it for them."

"Just like any normal information network," Marcus said from close to her left where he watched the screen, sharing an agreeing look with Jaina.

"Well, yes, but you see, we have failed to account for what has happened on Illium when we fought the Eclipse," she said. "Illium is not some backwater colony where the things that happened stay unknown. It's a Hub world. Our fight against the Eclipse was recorded by a dozen security cameras, and it has spread throughout the Traverse and the Terminus. Every single mercenary, pirate, smuggler and criminal organization from Citadel to Omega and from Kar'Shan to Illium now knows that we have established an information network and that we have the teeth to protect ourselves. To further things, they know that the Shadow Broker himself was involved as well."

"Sooo… how does this reflect on us?" Jaina asked slowly from the other side of her.

Liara reached out and tapped a button on the terminal. The screen displayed a list of about a dozen messages.

"These are the messages containing possible clues to Benezia's whereabouts that my personal contacts had provided."

She then tapped a different button, and the screen changed tabs to show a _significantly_ longer list of messages.

"These, however, are the messages that the various legal, semi-legal, and downright illegal organizations had sent me via my contacts, requesting _my_ services as an information broker because they don't want to go through the Shadow Broker for various reasons!" she finished animatedly, the excitement giving intensity to her voice.

There was a silence in the room.

"Liara, there are over one hundred messages here," Marcus said in wide-eyed amazement.

"I know!" Liara whined cutely as she slumped in her chair. "I don't know what to do!"

"Right," Jaina said with a sigh and moved her head forward a bit to look at Marcus from Liara's right. "Well, we might be able to get some of our friends in the Alliance Intelligence to give us a few pointers for start? Maybe an Alliance Intelligence VI?"

"Jaina, that's not it," Liara said in surprise as she looked up at her and Marcus in turn. "You misunderstand! I'm not having a problem because I don't know how to handle this network, it's because I'm conflicted inside on whether I should."

Jaina opened then closed her mouth in surprise as her head shot up, and she shared a look with Marcus over Liara's head. She then looked down at Liara and spoke:

"Are you telling us that you _can_ maintain information flow to and from all these people?"

"Well, it's not like it's hard," Liara said. "All you have to do is to keep everything organized when it comes to contacts. And, when you make communiqués, that's where you need to apply hard or soft touch based on who you're dealing with. You threaten and cajole until it goes your way, but ultimately almost all of it is a bluff – all the things I've had to learn how to do when I was seeking financial grants from various sponsors for my archaeological expeditions and, later, to prove my theories."

Jaina was gaping at her in amazement before she narrowed her eyes at her.

"Sound like you actually love this," Marcus declared amusedly from Liara's other side.

The young asari smiled, looking down guilty. "Well, I… have to admit that… information brokering has always been an interest of mine," she said. "It drew me in for all the same reason that xenoarchaeology did – because of the mystery behind it, the search for knowledge, holding the power because of knowing what had happened. I stumbled onto it the first time as a means to find Prothean ruins. But I was always told it's not supposed to be something an archaeologist does, what any of the eminent scientists did; it's not even what asari my age do! I…"

She trailed off for a moment, looking distressed. As if on cue, Marcus placed a calming hand on her shoulder, and Jaina crouched down in front of her, placing her hand on Liara's thigh supportively.

"Look at me," Jaina said softly, but firmly, drawing Liara's gaze to her. "Whoever said those things to you is a fucking scumbag. They are wrong."

Relief exploded in Liara's eyes.

"I was hoping you would say that, but I couldn't know," she said slowly. "I have always felt drawn to this. I felt it was who I was. When everyone called me on my methods, I stood firm. I hoped you'd see it my way as well. Your approval was… important to me. Very important."

"Of course we approve," Marcus stated firmly, then spread his arms. "What is there to judge, anyway? That you're going after your dreams and desires using your brain, rather than your looks? That you crave to know how it truly is, rather than what is comfortable? That you want to build something and see where your full potential will take you?"

"You're a young asari maiden Li," Jaina said with a sisterly chastisement as she poked her gently in the stomach. "It's your right to go about exploring the universe. Except that you're not doing it by being a mercenary kid or shaking your ass in some sleazy club, but by wanting to learn how to influence events."

Liara smiled. "I was afraid of how you might react," she said softly, looking from one to the other. "I was afraid that you'd see these desires as a dark side of me that shouldn't be fostered."

"Power does NOT corrupt, Liara," Marcus said as he leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms. "Power is power. It just exists. It's how you use it that determines whether you are a good or a bad person. If you do not take hold of this power, somebody else will. At least like this, we can be sure that it's in good hands."

Liara smiled humbly.

"Thank you for thinking that, Marcus," she said, then looked on into the distance. "This passion of mine, this desire to question things, to seek knowledge and power that comes from it was something I've always felt proud about myself. Yet is also the big part of the reason why, despite the undisputed fact that unlike them I actually provided firm results again and again, the rest of archaeological and scientific community ostracized me. It gives me peace to see that you're not."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said reassuringly. "I can't in good conscience call anyone out for following their dreams and actually being productive at it. The way I see it, the rest of the asari scientific community are idiots. It is because of their staid views and pressure on the diplomats that we're having great trouble convincing the Galaxy that the Reapers exist. Now, even though we do know what is going on and had evidence, there'd be a whole bunch of them to adamantly deny it just to keep their rep. Were those idiots even looking in the right places? What do they do anyway?"

Liara smirked in amusement.

"Well, most archaeologists don't use contacts among mercenaries and information networks to find Prothean digsites," she pointed out amusedly. "They wait for some proper government agency or a good and honest civilian to find it and arrange everything for them. They crave for funding and they crave for protection. They never risk. And that's why none of them have gone where I have."

"Their loss," Marcus stated as he began slowly pacing the room, the tone of his voice stating clearly as to what he thought of them and their matter.

"Our gain," Jaina added as she stood up from her crouch in front of Liara and sat back against Liara's desk. "Having you at the helm of this network might just help all of us in the long run."

"What do you mean?" Liara asked.

Jaina shared a smile with Marcus.

"That's the thing we were coming to talk to you about in the first place," Marcus replied. "We had wanted to know if it was possible for you to expand your information network to encompass areas other than search for Benezia and Saren."

"You did?" Liara asked in bewilderment. "Why?"

"I _was_ thinking that it'd be good for us to find ourselves some homework, so to speak," Marcus said. "Jaina and I had spoken of this just now. Saren is out there, and our trail has gone cold. And he's not stupid; he's not just going to leave a clear trail for us to follow. Feros was a major stroke of luck on our part. Our decision to interact with the Beacon was, too. But these things have made Saren more careful. The next trail will be much harder to find. And the time is ticking away. With every day we sit and wait for something to crop up, our team gets rusty. Our skills get diluted, just like muscles weaken when not used."

Liara's eyes flashed in understanding. "So you need to find assignments," she said discerningly, "preferably the ones that call for the usage of arms and high amounts of skill, in order to keep us ready for the moment when the confrontation really comes. And you're hoping that my network might be able to ferret something out!"

"Is it possible?" Jaina asked.

Liara nodded firmly. "Yes, it is possible. Very much so, in fact! The information brokering siphons everything that crosses its path, and a lot of it does; it's the question of how, what, where, and when it is used."

"So, you do have some indirect mercenary contacts?" Jaina asked.

"Mhm," Liara nodded. "And one or two direct as well. They will provide a lot of information on what we need. Though, it will require a lot of money. I know Spectre funding is paying for this, but a lot of it will be needed in the first months – assuming this even stretches that long."

"Every logged success will bring more funding from the Council, and more basis for future funding as well," Marcus stated. "It's as simple as that."

"Then we have nothing to worry about," Liara said excitedly as she stood up, turning toward them. "In fact, if I plan my ventures through the network right, I can begin to actually _earn_ money for us, by brokering the information back."

She began pacing back and forth across the room, her brilliant mind working like supercharged as she motioned with her hands.

"Furthermore, by making controlled releases of the information across the ether, we can actually manipulate what happens in the Galaxy, maybe even subtly prevent slaver strikes against colonies or something else in the line of that. It would take a lot of time for that, though, but it's far from impossible!"

"And what about using this in accordance with your own expertise on searching for Prothean ruins?" Marcus asked as he crossed his arms. "Could you find more?"

"I could," Liara nodded slowly as she thought carefully on the matter. "I have never had this many organizations contact me out of the blue when I was searching for Prothean ruins on my own before; if I were to use them to find Prothean ruins, I'm sure the return would be much greater than when I was on my own. But why would you want me to seek out Prothean ruins now?"

"Two reasons," he said. "One is because Saren is searching for them as well in his search for the Conduit. Overtaking him would mean a lot, and to do that, we need to find more clues of just what the hell happened fifty thousand years ago."

"Yes, of course!" Liara exclaimed in realization, pointing a finger at him. "The Eden Prime Beacon must not have been the only one to record the Prothean-Reaper War!"

"And then, there is the Reaper tech itself," Jaina said gravely. "The Citadel, the mass relays…" she shook her head. "Those were left on purpose, but you can't tell me that there aren't _more_ of Reaper artifacts that were left around."

Liara nodded empathically. "That's right. If my theories of cyclical extinctions are correct, then Reapers must've left even more to ensure their victory – something that we still don't know about."

"And the species that had come before must've fought, _hard_ ," Marcus said. "Even a hyper-intelligent killing machine is not completely immune to attrition; some of its gear must've been left on the battlefield if they thought it was completely destroyed. Nobody is immune to mistakes."

"You're right," Liara said grinning, and her eyes as wide as saucers as she looked from one human to the other. "I will make this happen! I will find every shred of information, correlate it, and bring it to light!"

She looked at her terminal with new determination.

"It will be a lot of work," she said. "But I. will. make it happen."

"Don't overstress yourself," Marcus said with a chuckle. "And that's an order, ya hear?"

Liara smiled. "Yes, Commander."

"Good girl," Jaina said, poking her gently in the ribs and wiggling her fingers into them, making Liara jump up, then giggle as she tried to squirm away. "But, just so you know, I'll make sure we check up on you from time to time, just so you don't hole yourself up in here. Girls need to have fun sometimes."

Liara squirmed away from Jaina's brief assault, taking a deep breath and settling, her face lightly flushed.

"We should go and have a talk with everybody else about this as well," Marcus said.

"Right," Jaina said somberly, then turned to Liara. "We'll be seeing you then."

"Come back any time," Liara said, following them to the door.

When the two Commanders were out, she returned to her terminal, sat down, and her blue eyes began darting from one contact message to the other, her mind forming plans upon plans, upon plans.

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _ **I have watched the 17-minute video of ME:A Peebee loyalty mission the other day. The graphics were awesome! The characters that behaved like they were pulled out of some children's cartoon and the fact that the game felt the need to point out everything to you like you were 5-year-old kid? Not so much. Therefore:**_

 _ **From Omega to Mars,**_

 _ **From the Council to the seediest bars,**_

 _ **From the reaches of Space,**_

 _ **To the pillars of asari grace,**_

 _ **There are battle-worn batarians lacking in humility,**_

 _ **Turians that are bragging about their reach and flexibility,**_

 _ **Clutter of the cities spreads to the loneliest stars.**_

 _ **But, Ryder,**_

 _ **No matter what scars you bear,**_

 _ **Whatever uniform you wear,**_

 _ **You can fight like a krogan and run like a leopard,**_

 _ **But you'll NEVER BE BETTER than Commander Shepard.**_

… _ **I should go.**_


	21. Chapter 21 - Old Scars

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _ **A bit delayed chapter, unfortunately. Like I said, the coworker is still on sick leave and the workload is still quite high. The Andromeda is fast approaching, so I'm not entirely sure AT ALL when the next chapter will be posted. There is every chance that there will be quite a great-ER delay before the next chapter is posted.**_

 _ **With that in mind, I'm gonna wait and see the people's verdicts for the game before I acquire it. Most of the videos I've seen don't give me confidence. Too many things about it just seem way off to me.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 16.3.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes (to an extent), Economic themes (there are some), Intrigue (a bit o' that, too)…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

...

 **Chapter 21 – Old Scars**

...

The main entrance airlock of the station opened, and Marcus and his seven teammates entered into the main corridor. The lights from the powerful flashlights eliminated the dark, empty corridor. Marcus looked at Tali and nodded.

The quarian girl activated her omni-tool, and several Ping-Pong ball-sized drones popped from her belt and hovered up into the air. The holographic matrix activated around each of them, forming a basketball-sized glowing holographic orb before each of the orb-drones zoomed off down the corridor and breaking off down various intersections.

Marcus monitored Tali's omni-tool together with her for a minute or so as drones scoured the station, forming an interactive map.

"It's done," Tali said at last. "The station is completely empty and vented of atmo. The layout matches the Normandy's penetrative scan by ninety-eight percent. Synching your omni-tools now."

There was a chime from all remaining seven omni-tools.

"Have the drones picked up anything else?" Jaina asked from Tali's other side.

"There are no active electronic devices or booby traps," Tali said. "The drones' mass effects were emulating all spectrum of physical interaction as they passed. Something would have been tripped by now."

"Then we spread out, seek out the points of relevance – the same drill and disposition," Jaina said, priming her SMG.

"I agree," he said, then made the call, "You know the drill, folks, get to it."

The team broke off into smaller groups. Tali went together with Kaidan toward the engineering while the rest separated and scoured the small station chamber by chamber.

"This is Tali," the quarian called a few minutes later. "The main generator is reactivated. I'm connecting the power back on."

"Garrus here," the turian called. "I'm at the main life support systems. I'll be switching them on as well."

Lights came back on a second later, followed by a whoosh of re-pressurization, and the teams shut off their flashlights as they began scouring it with greater efficiency. There was not much to see, though. The station was small and abandoned. Fifteen minutes later, everyone had congregated in what was station's main operations room.

"Anything?" Jaina queried.

"Nothing," Tali replied from where she was scouring the computers. "This is the third Cerberus station we've checked, and it's the same as it was in the previous two cases. The hardware was scrubbed with an external program designed to delete every errant scrap of data, like in the previous two locations. Very professional."

"They were also very efficient in cleaning up everything that could leave so much as DNA traces," Garrus said. "No personal terminals, clothing, space suits, and that goes for anything that was for personal use – soap, food, you name it. But the lower level below us also shows evidence of heavy objects of some kind being recently moved."

"I think that it must've been lab equipment," Liara said. "They didn't want us to know what was being done here."

"And this place smells like chemicals," Wrex added. "They were trying to scrub any fleck of DNA that might have been in the air or on any surface so that they cannot be traced. I've seen this before."

Marcus, now bareheaded and with his gauntlets removed was walking around the place silently. The new and unnamed Prothean sense that he had acquired through the Cipher was calling to him. Ever since Illium, it was becoming stronger.

His hands were passing searchingly over the consoles and over any other place that might have been frequently touched in seeming casualness. The sense of the chemicals that the Wrex talked about was clear under his fingertips. The chemicals were hiding something beneath them – an echo that was trying to pass into his mind and form images. But it was a no-go. Blurry shadows and impressions were all that he was seeing, the true sense of residual images destroyed by the chems.

"Any indication what was this place used for?" Marcus asked after a while.

"Maybe," Liara said as she worked her omni-tool. "I've detected elevated levels of re-sequenced eezo particles in the section we think might have been a lab."

"Element zero experimentation?" Ashley asked.

"This is a too small of a station for that," Marcus replied. "You'd need a lot of very large machinery to perform proper eezo tests."

"How about the application on humans?" Jaina ventured.

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"I don't see the purpose of it," Garrus said uncertainly as he looked around. "Trying to find how to prevent the appearance of eezo-induced cancer, maybe?"

"Actually, I think I know the reason," Kaidan said, his expression dark. When he saw that everyone was looking at him, he continued: "Controlled deliberate eezo exposures for the sake of inducing biotics in a human."

"Wait a minute, Lt," Ashley said, raising her hand. "I thought that biotics in humans can only develop if the eezo exposure happened while they were in the womb?"

"Exactly," Kaidan stated.

A deathly silence followed as everyone looked around uncomfortably.

"The requirements for maintaining such a lab would fit perfectly with a station such as this," Garrus said grimly. "The lab's size, storage it'd need, personnel housing, engineering and operations… the scrapes and indentation markings we've found in the lab would be consistent with the size of various biological containers and pods, lab beds, experimentation tables…"

"Alright, alright, alright," Ashley raised her arm, looking green in the face. "We get it."

"Let's not jump to conclusion," Jaina stated. "We're in no position to say anything at this moment. Tali, have you made any progress with the computers?"

"No concrete shred of data whatsoever," Tali replied. "All I've managed to extract is the rough estimate of how much the machine was used and when copying was done to external memory banks from the chipset itself." She shrugged. "Not much good that will do. I'd need heavier equipment dedicated to salvaging corrupted data, but there's no point in lugging that with us."

Marcus sighed as he walked slowly around the control consoles until he reached one office desk that was to the rear of others, separated, and in an elevated position. There was a comfortable work armchair behind the desk. An overseer's, or director's position.

Wanting to put himself into the station's director's eyes, Marcus sat into the chair and leaned back, placing his hands on the armrests. A flash of images surged into his mind in an instant.

"… _full purge, second level of preservation,"_ a muffled voice spoke, a blurry shade of a man in a lab coat in front of him.

" _Dammit,"_ another voice growled, the emotions of extreme fury washing over Marcus. _"Copy the data, purge the local banks. Transfer all subjects and equipment onto the transport, and prepare the tridelax to flood the station with it."_

" _Even the failed fetuses, Sir?"_

" _Don't worry, even those can be used for further study. Their brains are riddled with eezo nodes. Remember, we can use this to map the progression of absorption."_

" _And what about Subject 17? If we stop the treatment in this phase, both she and the infant she carries will die."_

" _She doesn't know that. We will isolate her and sedate her so that she dies without disturbing others; we don't need the hassle. We still have Subjects nineteen through twenty-four. Now, go."_

" _Yes, sir."_

The images passed without lasting even a second, and Marcus looked down to where his bared palm was touching the armrest; they had missed a spot during the chemical purge.

The ability was advancing. The images and sounds were still murky and muffled, but they were becoming more pronounced as opposed to before. And he was getting the idea how it worked. The fact that Cerberus had used tridelax in a liquid state and sprayed it all along the equipment provided the clue. That compound meant to degrade both organic and chemical traces; he hadn't felt a single thing throughout the entire station. But they obviously missed a spot, right here where he sat, thinking that nobody could find any clues from a chair. But that director had been sitting in this chair every day for months, years maybe, and the chair had absorbed his essence, sending it out powerfully for him to pick up.

An organic-chemical trail. That's what it was. That's what his ability was picking up.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, taking that fraction of a second to let the images settle into the back of his mind.

"I have a gut feeling that this station really _was_ used for the things Kaidan said," Marcus declared at last.

Garrus hummed pensively. "I have to say I feel the same way," he said. "No way to know for sure, but we can, at least, point whoever would come this way at what to look for."

"We'll send for an alliance cruiser, like in the previous two cases," Jaina said. "They'll have the needed gear to sweep this place through and through."

"That's all they _can_ do," Marcus said. "The Alliance is still stretched thin as they are rallying their resources from the Eden Prime attack." He nodded then. "Tali, this station is in a decaying orbit toward the star, right?"

"True, though I don't know why Cerberus bothered to set it up that way," she said with a shrug. "It will take another year until it impacts the sun."

"They probably thought nobody was going to check this wayward system in a long while," Garrus offered. "Why bother with using a demo charge?"

"Regardless," Jaina said, "Tali, can you reestablish a stable orbit?"

"Sure," she said and tapped out a few commands onto her omni-tool and popped out a small system-on-a-chip from one of her compartments. "I'll set up a portable SOC, so as not to disturb any traces that might be left on the original computers."

There was a sense of gentle vertigo as the station's mass effect and inertial field established a bubble of reduced mass, and the station's positioning engines went to accelerate the station into a new orbit.

"Aaand… there," Tali said as she turned off her omni-tool. "The station is in stable orbit again."

"Good," Marcus said. "The Alliance cruiser will pick it up from here on when they get here. Move out."

"And so, another dead end," Ashley said in annoyance as they shuffled out of the operations room.

"Actually, that's not the case at all, chief," Liara spoke up. "I can correlate a lot of what we had found here together with the other two places. It's only traces and assumptions, sure, but I can use it to send out feelers along my network to find out the most plausible explanations. There are only so many scenarios that fit the description."

"Huh, kinda like one of those equations with multiple solutions that…" Ash started, then shook her head. "Ugh, never mind! Was never good with math."

"Math?" Garrus queried. "There's no need for math. It's all pretty much elementary, chief."

"Don't go all Sherlock Holmes on me, Garrus," she groaned, to what there were a couple of chuckles.

"Ahem. Sherma-what?" Garrus asked back in even greater bewilderment.

"Nothing," Jaina said with a smirk, slapping him on the shoulder and directing him to move on. "You'll see it sometime, perhaps."

Marcus smirked with her, but out of the corner of his eye, he kept a close eye on a somber-looking Kaidan. He shared a look with Jaina; she had noticed it too. Something had bugged him out more than usual.

* * *

.

Half an hour later, Marcus, Jaina, and the rest of their team were sitting in the comm room, with Pressly speaking on the comms:

" _We've just jumped out of the system, Commander, and heading toward the Han relay. The transit to the Voyager Cluster will take approximately fifteen hours, and the travel from Amazon to Yangtze system will take additional twelve*._ "

"Keep us posted," Marcus said and ended the comm.

"So – Binthu?" Ashley queried.

"The last location we have on the list," Jaina said with a nod. "Apparently, it's the largest installation of the four listed.

"Cerberus seems to be pretty spread out across the entire Skillian Verge," Garrus said. "Judging from what we've seen in all three of the bases, I'm pretty sure we're dealing with only one single cell of the organization."

"Cell?" Ashley asked, raising her eyebrows. "Like a terrorist cell?"

"Pretty much," Garrus said with a nod. "But this begs to question just how big they are. A terrorist cell is small – a few individuals at most, operating at only one location. This, however, is big and is spread across several systems in several clusters. Terrorist cells just don't operate on that level of organization. Whoever they are, Cerberus is big business, and they know what they're doing."

"And it makes you wonder just what the heck were they doing in those outposts if they've picked them clean like that," Wrex growled.

Marcus and Jaina shared a look before they turned to Kaidan.

"Kaidan, you mentioned something about deliberate eezo exposures back on the station?" Marcus asked.

Kaidan sighed, leaning with one elbow against his knee. "Sorry, Commander, but I was just speculating. It really isn't based on any facts."

"Well, right now, even speculation can provide a potential piece of the puzzle that can help us view the whole thing," Jaina said.

Kaidan chuckled. "If you say so, Commander," he said, then turned serious. "Well, about this whole thing – it made me remember all of those deliberate element zero exposures back during the early sixties."

"Yeah, I remember reading about that," Marcus said as he shared a look with Jaina. "The conspiracy of the heyday was that the corporations were deliberately crashing eezo transports over populated centers so that they could cause biotics in unborn children."

"Not so much of a conspiracy, I'm afraid," Kaidan said. "It was never proven, but it had happened."

"I don't understand," Tali spoke up in distressed confusion. "Why were they doing that? Element zero exposures can cause severe cases of cancer!"

"It does, but they did it purposefully in order to develop biotics in humans," Kaidan said. "The most efficient way for the eezo nodules to form in your brain is if it happens while you're a fetus. That's why they were trying to expose pregnant women to eezo while trying to make it look like an accident."

"D-did this happen to you?" Tali asked in shock.

"No, I was not a product of a deliberate exposure, if that's what you meant," Kaidan replied. "My mother was downwind of one of the first mass effect ships that crashed; that's how many of the human biotics came to be. You need to understand that this was back in '51 and '52, just a few years after humanity discovered mass effect and long before we ever came into contact with the rest of the Galaxy. Back then, we didn't even know that such a thing as biotics was possible. Hell, it took a few years just to link biotics with element zero.

"But when they did, that's when things started to get iffy. What I'm talking about started somewhere around 2163, some twelve years after the first accidental exposures, when we really started exchanging knowledge and history with the rest of the Galactic Society. That's when they started figuring out what had happened to us, and that's when they started realizing the potential that the biotics have. And, of course, the foremost of the questions was – could those individuals be used as supersoldiers?"

"What was the name of the firm that performed the search for biotics kids again?" Jaina asked. "Kinetics-something?"

" _Conatix_ ," Kaidan corrected. "Yeah. They were backed by the Systems Alliance at the beginning. They chased after biotic kids all over, both Earth and Colonies. A bunch of guys in suits would appear at your door after school, saying things like they could help and doing what's good for the advancement of humanity, and the next thing you know you'd be shipped off to Jump Zero – Gagarin Station. To kids they hauled in, it was just brain camp."

"They could do that?" Ashley asked incredulously. "Was that even legal?"

"Grey zone," Kaidan said. "There weren't a lot of regulations back then. Everything that Conatix did was gold."

"Wait," Garrus stopped him, raising a hand. "Commander, what about you? Were you there?"

"No," Marcus said, sharing a look with Jaina. "Both Jaina and I had slipped through Conatix's fingers for a couple of reasons. Me – I was almost a street urchin on Earth and was never around my foster families enough for them to notice – and it was your family noticing the weird phenomena around you that got you flagged because they'd seek out help. As for Jaina, she was on Mindoir, far off from the big happenings, and when BAat began, we were both nine; too young and too low-key for them to notice us. Kaidan was – what was it? Twelve? In any case, BAat ended not even a year later, so we never got there."

Kaidan picked up: "Yeah, not all of the kids were 'caught' so to speak. And that was the problem that led Conatix to purposefully cause eezo haulers to crash over populated areas. They were running out of accidentals. They needed more test subjects."

"Are you kidding me?" Ashley asked angrily.

"Wish I was, Ash," Kaidan said.

"Was there any proof of this?" Garrus asked intently.

"None," Kaidan replied. "Somebody did a very good job at covering it up. A lot of money must've gone into it. Conatix did sink down a year or so later, right after BAat program was dismantled, but the thing is that big corporate heads don't disappear just like that. Conatix was funded by the Systems Alliance. Which got me thinking: what if some secret branch of the Alliance scooped all those scientists up and placed them in some project that dealt with biotics?"

Marcus and Jaina shared a grim look of understanding.

"Cerberus was linked to the Alliance shadow organizations," she said.

"Exactly," Kaidan said heatedly, pointing a finger. "That's why I remembered all this when we were back at the station and we considered if it might be human eezo experiments." He raised his hands over the sides of his face, pointing at his head. "I mean, all of these things that I told you about had flashed in my head in a blink of an eye! It's just a speculation, I know, but damn me if it doesn't shed light on this whole thing Commander!"

"No, you're right," Marcus said, looking grim. "This thing is like a beacon."

"It's not just a wild conjecture," Jaina agreed, her tone incredulous as she looked at Marcus. "Cerberus was a shadow organization. Still is. Virtually no one knows what they do. But it's not a wild thing to guess that they could have obtained research data that Conatix made. It's just that nobody except us is looking into this. Alenko, you're virtually the only one that was in the position to make this link!"

"A stroke of luck, nothing more," Kaidan said.

"Hey, don't talk like that, Lt," Ashley spoke up, nudging him shoulder-to-shoulder. "You were in a position to do something about this whole thing, and you did it."

Garrus then spoke up:

"But if these people are ruthless enough to experiment on _pregnant women_ in order to stimulate biotics in children, risking all kinds of cancers and mutations, then they need to be struck down. Permanently."

"I agree," Wrex said. "Krogan are not the ones to coddle their kids, but every child is important to us. This is just a crime against nature. The thing is, though, that I am a strategist. I think long term, so I believe I understand this Cerberus, Shepard. This eezo exposure experimentation would not be the only thing they would do."

"You're right," Marcus said. "Kahoku said that Cerberus did all kinds of things. If you take into consideration how their bases are spread out, then that means they have both funding and strategic vision. If we were to come upon their base, we should expect anything."

"Does anyone else have anything to bring to court right now?" Jaina asked.

When nobody said anything, Marcus spoke up:

"Very well then. I will now go down to the cargo bay and finish main gun modifications for our Hover-Mako. Anyone interested in joining in?"

"I will," Garrus stood up readily.

"So will I," Wrex said.

Tali spoke up: "I want permission to remove the wheels and suspension of the second Mako as well, and set it up with the hover system."

"Can you make it in time until we reach Binthu?" Marcus asked.

"If I use Miller and his men to help, I'll be done in half that time," she said. "We already know 'what, where and how' from calibrating the hover system of the first Mako."

"Count me in your team, Tali," Kaidan said. "A biotic to lift things will serve you good, and I figure a little bit of work will serve _me_ good right about now."

"You're welcome," Tali chirped.

"Alright then," Marcus said. "Dismissed."

* * *

.

"How does it look?" Marcus asked as he looked down from where he crouched on Mako's rooftop near the vehicle's rear end.

"Fits like a glove," Garrus replied from below, his face obscured. "I'll do some calibrations later, but it already serves its purpose perfectly."

"Good," Marcus said and hopped down to the floor, walking to join Wrex, who stood at the side.

Garrus walked out from under the structure and stood side by side with Marcus and Wrex, marveling at what they had achieved.

The old, _1 x 2.2_ caliber standard main gun that was previously on the Hover-Mako was gone – its entire turret completely removed and replaced with fabricated hard armor. The new turret mount that they had just finished installing was mounted all the way at the rear end of the Mako, its double-axis joint designed in such a way to not only enable a 360-degree turret rotation but also to enable turret to swivel from its default 'over-the-top' to 'under-the-belly' firing position for when Hover-Mako was airborne.

"Will be one beautiful piece of weapon platform once it's done," Wrex rumbled with a big krogan grin.

"I sure hope so," Marcus said. "I designed it to outperform any vehicle the Alliance – or any other species' military has."

"That much is obvious," Garrus said. "It's five times as expensive as anything else of its mass category. It's not a tank anymore, it beats a gunship when it comes to maneuverability, and with the new heat sinks it doesn't even overheat!"

"You really think you'd be able to install an FTL module onto this thing?" Wrex queried in bewilderment, turning to Marcus.

Marcus sighed. "Well, I've thought about it – no denying it…"

"Shouldn't be too hard," Garrus pointed out. "Just use Kodiak's FTL arrays; they're of compatible size. You just array them along the inside of the outer hull and you're done."

"True, but Mako is different structurally," Marcus said, shaking his head. "You'd need to calculate the mass and center-of-weight ratios. Not quite as simple; you might end up with FTL causing a several-percentage off-axis drift. It could be deadly. Perhaps after a couple of months of dedicated R&D, but with us busy chasing Saren, well…"

"Hmm, shame," Wrex rumbled pensively as he looked back to the morphing vehicle. "If outfitted with an FTL module, this vehicle could even beat a Kodiak when it comes to FTL speed, the way I reckon."

"Not by crew capacity, though, that's for sure," Garrus added.

"Who cares!" Wrex countered. "Let Kodiak remain the transporter. This beast will be the heavy hitter that clears the ground of enemies for the Kodiak to land in the first place!"

"I'll say," Garrus agreed, smiling. "This new main gun is a _2 x 7-cal_. It'll make it hit almost as hard as a secondary corvette gun – the turreted ones."

"And let's not forget those smaller machinegun turrets you plan to install on its sides to the front of it," Wrex said with a predatory grin. "Were they supposed to carry missiles, too?"

"Yep," Marcus said, not being able to keep the smirk off his face, either, before he turned to look at the large ship's fabricator. "How far have we got with the main gun, anyway?"

"The fabricator popped out the rails just a minute ago," Wrex said. "They need some time to cool off."

Marcus nodded, looking at the rails, before walked a couple of paces around the Mako, casting a look toward the other side of the hangar bay where Tali, Kaidan, and Miller's men were helping with replacing the complete suspension of the other Mako with hover drive. Kaidan was crouching next to the vehicle, holding some tools as he looked underneath it, while Tali had popped a side hatch and had her top half buried in the chassis. It made her voluptuous, and arguably very attractive posterior stick out quite conspicuously, and two of Miller's young marines were already staring mesmerized at it – until Miller himself passed and gave each of them a strong slap on the back of their heads with a rolled up rag, sending them scurrying to continue working and looking chastised enough. Nobody else seemed to notice anything, and Marcus chuckled.

"Hey, you guys need any help over there?!" he called. "We have some time over here until the gun rails cool off!"

"Nah, Commander, we already have too many hands," Kaidan called as he straightened out from where he was crouching. "Any more and it's just crowd."

"Alright, but call if we're needed," Marcus replied.

"Will do!"

Marcus moved back to where Garrus and Wrex were checking some systems and sat on a nearby crate. "Well, we might as well take a short break until the rails sufficiently cool down."

"I'm up for that," Wrex said as he sat on another crate and took out one of his krogan beers from the container mounted on the side of his armor.

"Do you always go around carrying a pair of beer cans?" Garrus asked exasperatedly.

"Do you always go about calibrating stuff?" Wrex countered pointedly, and then he popped the can and took a big slurp.

Garrus started to protest. "I'll have you know that the job I do is important for the sake of maintaining –"

"Garrus," Marcus interrupted him with an amused shake of his head.

"Ahem… point taken," Garrus acquiesced.

"Heheheheheee," Wrex chuckled, his meaty throat jumping up-and-down. "You're learning, kid."

Garrus chuckled. "Don't worry, Wrex. I'm sure even old dogs can learn some new tricks."

Wrex narrowed his eyes and grunted. "Wiseass."

Garrus laughed back, and then he sighed. "Though I gotta say, Shepard, this quest against Saren is teaching me a lot already."

"Oh?" Marcus prodded.

"Yeah," Garrus said, then trailed off. "The Galaxy at large isn't what they taught you at C-Sec, or the military, isn't it?"

"Hmpf," Wrex grunted. "You got that right."

"I figured as much," Garrus said. "Both the army and C-Sec teach you one thing, and one thing alone: that there is the good way – _their_ way – and that there is the bad way – which is any other way. The black and white. That the rules exist for the reason of distinguishing such things. But it's not that clear cut in the real world, isn't it?"

"No, it isn't," Marcus agreed, then was silent for a moment. "I know you had wanted to look the world through the eyes of the law when you went after Saren on your own, Garrus, but I cannot look you in the eyes and lie to your face telling you that that looking the world as 'black and white' is the right way of looking or doing things; my conscience wouldn't be clear otherwise. The C-Sec's mandate is to maintain order, and there's a great difference between maintaining order and actually stopping the _real_ bad people. I'm not talking about petty criminals, I'm talking about the big shots, the ones that roll the blood money – money off of which even the most powerful industrials and politicians profit. But neither can I look you in the eye and say 'the hell with it, kill 'em all'. That would be a whole range of wrong as well. And that's what a Spectre faces – making the fucked up choices, and being aware of what he's doing. That's a whole special kind of hell for you."

"It is, if you allow it to pick at your conscience," Wrex spoke up. "But the world doesn't give a damn about you and your conscience. It's what Shepard here says. It's how the real evil is stopped. Real evil thrives on rules, because it knows exactly how far the 'good guys' are allowed to go, and uses it against them. How do you think Saren got away with staging all of those things he did right in front of the Council's noses?"

Garrus chuckled. "My father would have had a thing or two to say about that," He said. " _'Do it right, or don't do it at all'_ – that's what he'd often say to me. The thing is, much of it sounds bland when it gets confronted with stuff like what we've witnessed in these couple of weeks."

"What did your father do for a living?" Marcus asked.

"He was a C-Sec officer as well, one of the best," Garrus replied. "I suppose that's why I became one, too. I'd always see him on the vids after a big arrest, always appearing so imposing, on top of things… He's not too thrilled about me being a part of a Spectre operation. He's worried I'll become just like Saren."

"And you could, very easily," Marcus deadpanned. "The potential is always there. Spectres have killed innocents for the sake of preserving peace, just like N7 or STG has, and all of them will kill even more in the centuries to come; no way around that. There will be a hundred situations where you will need to choose: do I save one life now and condemn thousands on the long run, or kill that one innocent man so that I can save a thousand. But it's a slippery slope. Do that often enough, and there'll come a moment when you'll pull the trigger to nuke a whole city and not feel a god-damn thing. After that – well… there is no going back."

"Yeah," Garrus nodded grimly after a moment. "I have faced such a dilemma once before while I worked in the C-Sec. Not that big, but still…"

"What was it about?" Marcus asked.

"A case that was fifty shades of 'Disturbing', truth be told," Garrus replied with a mirthless chuckle. "This whole thing with Cerberus potentially doing tests on humans? Well, this thing was similar to that in a way.

"You see, there's a very lucrative black market trade on the Citadel: illegal tech, weapons and mods, rare and exotic animals – you name it. It's virtually impossible to stop it. You can only mitigate it. So, every now and then, one of us would be assigned to investigate it deeper. I pulled the short straw. During my investigation, though, I've noticed an increase in the trade of body parts – organs, for the most part."

"Strange to see something as mundane as cloned organs being traded on the black market in this day and age," Marcus commented.

"Yeah, but black market cloned organs usually go to criminal groups – when one of their own gets shot or badly injured, they cannot just go to the local hospital," Garrus clarified. "And they can't wait for the new organs to be grown for them – they need a readily-available new organ _stat_ , or they die. We usually get a few illegal organs appearances every now and then, but not in the quantities that I was seeing. We didn't know whether we were dealing with a new black market lab, or if some freak was harvesting organs from citizens."

Marcus looked at him in surprise. "Wait, you get that? Why the hell would someone hack organs from citizens in order to sell them?"

Wrex spoke up: "You'd be surprised at how easy and profitable it is, Shepard. All you need is a canister of ice and an unlucky alley passerby. These kinds of acts are done by the desperate kind. It's a common occurrence on Omega, believe me."

"Yeah, but when I was on my first year on the job with C-Sec, we caught an elcor diplomat killing people, hacking their organs out and selling them," Garrus said. "That guy was simply a maniac, a serial killer. But this case of traded organs wasn't that clear cut. Like I said, we didn't know what was going on. So, we took a DNA sample from one of the organs we had confiscated and traced it through the system to find the victim. Now, at that moment, things started to get really weird. You see, the trace led us to a turian, who was _very much alive_ , and was obviously very convinced he'd never lost his liver."

Both Marcus and Wrex had leaned forward in their seats now, listening to what Garrus was saying with increasing interest.

"After a bit of digging," Garrus continued, "I discovered that the turian had worked briefly for one Doctor Saleon, a salarian geneticist. The link made enough of a reasonable doubt for us to get a warrant and to search Doctor Saleon's lab in order to find evidence of unlicensed organ cloning. But, when I got there, there was nothing! No salarian hearts, no turian livers, not one krogan testicle."

Marcus's eyebrows shot up. "Testi – you're kidding, right?!"

"He's not," Wrex grumbled, shaking his head. "There's a whole bunch of idiots amongst krogan who believe that quad transplants can increase your virility and counteract the effects of the genophage."

"Yeah, it doesn't work, but it doesn' t stop them from buying," Garrus said. "They'll pay upwards of ten thousand credits each – that's forty thousand for a full set."

There was a pause.

"Somebody's making a killing out there," Garrus said in stark realization.

"Yeah, well they're not getting mine – no way, no how!" Wrex declared, then spoke up proudly: "A man's quad is what defines him! It is a man's sacred duty to be able to spread his progeny and to protect them, and having the quad is the very definition of it!"

Marcus chuckled mirthfully, shaking his head before he turned to Garrus nodding at him. "So, anyway, what did you do about that salarian geneticist?"

"Right," Garrus got back on track. "Well, I decided to bring in some of his employees for interrogation, to see if I could make 'em talk, you know?"

Wrex chuckled. "Wanting to make a minion squeal? Smart. They are always more liable to let something slip which you can use against them."

"That was the idea, but that's not what happened," Garrus said, spreading his mandibles in a grin. "Even before I began the interviews, one of the detainees started bleeding profusely! We immediately went about arranging for medics to patch him up, but as soon as he heard that, the guy started freaking out, trying to decline medical assistance. You can't do that when you're detained, though, so I ordered a full exam to find out just what the heck was going on. What medics found was that he had incisions all over his body – some of them fresh! When I ordered for an examination of the other detainees, we found that they had the same condition! That was our big break. These people were not just Dr. Saleon's employees. They were test tubes – living, breathing test tubes!"

"Are you telling me he was growing parts _inside_ of living people?" Marcus asked.

"That's ingenious!" Wrex exclaimed. "Sick, but ingenious none the less."

"I'll say," Garrus said. "Interior of a living body is naturally the perfect environment for organ development. So, when organs would mature, Saleon would harvest them and sell them off."

"How desperate would you have to be to put yourself under knife over and over again while risking your own body by ingesting all those hormone-based organ growth drugs?" Marcus wondered.

"Most of Saleon's victims were poor," Garrus gave the response. "Saleon would pay them a small percentage of the sales, but only if the organs were good. Sometimes an organ wouldn't grow properly and he'd just leave it there. Some of these people were a mess!"

"Did you have enough evidence to catch Saleon?" Marcus asked.

Garrus sighed. "We did, but we never caught him."

"What?!" Wrex barked in utter surprise. "Why not?! Don't tell me that C-Sec was that incompetent!"

"Maybe, maybe not," Garrus said with a shrug. "This is where this whole story links to what Marcus was talking about earlier – of being forced to kill innocents and the dilemma behind it. I'll let you be the judge of what happened.

"Essentially, Saleon caught wind of the C-Sec detaining his employees. The smart bastard didn't risk waiting. He blew his lab, grabbed some of his test subjects, and ran for the space docks. By the time we found out what was happening, his ship was already leaving. He threatened to kill all of the poor wretches that worked for him if we tried to stop him."

"Let. Me. Guess." Wrex spoke in exasperated annoyance. "The C-Sec let him go."

Garrus sighed. "I ordered the Citadel Defenses to shoot him down, but C-Sec headquarters countermanded my orders. They were worried about a ship being destroyed so close to the Citadel. A valid point, but I still pleaded with them to at least disable his ship somehow. But it was a no-go. They were afraid what would happen to the hostages, and they were afraid that Saleon would make a ship self-destruct or that he perhaps had a bomb."

Wrex grimaced in annoyance.

"There are so many implausible assumptions in there that I don't have enough fingers to point them all out!" the krogan growled. "Civilian ships don't have self-destruct mechanisms! Their cores can't even be overloaded – they have hard-rigged safeties for that! You either need at least a ton of XDX explosive compound just to shear off your average transport-hauler's main structural chassis or a micro-nuke to destroy it completely. Now, I'm talking from experience here! You want to tell me C-Sec thought a geneticist had either of those in his possession in the middle of the Citadel?"

"Exactly what I was trying to explain to them," Garrus said animatedly. "But they wouldn't listen. They argued that Saleon would just shoot the hostages. They wouldn't even listen when I tried explaining that they'd be condemning those people to a fate worse than death at Saleon's hands." He sighed. "I realize now that what I wanted to do back then is kill a lot of innocents just so that I could stop a madman from killing more. Was I in the wrong?"

"As far as I'm concerned, the C-Sec was in the wrong, not you," Marcus said. "It was probably the higher-ups protecting their own hide from the public backlash. If I had the trigger in my hands, I would have shot that ship down without hesitation. That doesn't mean I wouldn't feel conflicted about having to kill innocents, but you don't have the luxury of hesitating and worrying about the consequences. Sometimes in life, you just gotta act first, and then deal with the consequences later. Otherwise, all we are left with is 'what if', and 'what if' hurts the most."

"Marcus is right," Wrex rumbled. "Let me tell you something, kid. There is no such thing as right or wrong. There is only action and the consequence. And whatever you do, no matter how hard you try to do good and help people, there will be a whole bunch of others that will hate you for doing it. That is life. You just gotta be stronger than it inside your own head and punch your way through to success. Maybe you'll succeed, or maybe you don't, but you gotta be aware that that's how life is."

Marcus nodded with his chin toward him. "Sounds like you're speaking from experience, Wrex."

The battlemaster rumbled pensively, his face looking as if he had just swallowed something sour. He looked to the side, where the new Mako main gun rails stood.

"Come on," he said as he motioned with his head toward the rails. "The rails must've cooled off by now. I'll tell you all about it while we're installing them."

Marcus and Garrus followed him, and the three of them picked up the long rails on their shoulders and carried them off next to the Hover-Mako. They slowly and carefully began mounting them into their sockets on the main gun's cradle.

"This goes back some… hahhh, I can't remember anymore… several centuries at the very least," Wrex started. "I was a leader of a small tribe. I was very young at that time, too – younger than any other krogan in my position had ever been."

"If you were so young, how did you manage to secure the position of a leader?" Garrus asked as he began installing mass effect array nodes along the length of the first rail. "Were you the strongest?"

"I don't like thinking that my brawn is what got me to the position of the leader," Wrex said. "I was stronger than most other krogan, yes, but the chief difference between me and them was that I used my head. And I'm not talking headbutting. Though, reputation certainly played its part. During my rite of adulthood, I had killed a thresher maw with my krantt on foot."

Garrus looked at him slack-mandibled, and Marcus whistled.

"What did you do as a tribe leader?" Marcus asked as he worked on integrating the fire-control system.

"Finding the krogan that would be willing to work with me for the most part," Wrex replied as he lifted the armor panels onto the roof of the Mako. "That is why my tribe was small. There were damn few krogan that wanted to actually work toward a greater cause. There still is too few. But because I built my tribe by seeking out the ones who thought like I did rather than just finding dumb grunts, our tribe was _strong_. They couldn't bring us down. Our voice had weight."

"Sounds to me like you were fighting for something other tribes didn't want," Marcus noticed.

"You could say that," Wrex growled. "We were trying to restore some semblance of order on Tuchanka. The Rebelions had ended eight hundred years earlier, and krogan were _still_ nowhere near beginning to rebuild. It felt like an insult to my kroganhood to just accept that way of living – just fighting in a ruined pile of radioactive rubble like some rabid varren. I wanted to make things better. But many other tribes didn't."

"Hold on," Marcus called as he paused working and leaned over the unarmored turret to look down at Wrex. "Sorry to divert the tale, but you keep speaking of tribes; I thought that krogan were divided into clans and confederations of clans."

"They are," Wrex said. "Krogan clans form greater confederations that may constantly change depending on how the wind's blowing, but clans themselves are formed of tribes. Some tribes are small and temporary – a few bands of warriors or hunters – while others are big and can trace their roots for thousands of years, but a tribe will never change clans. My clan, clan Urdnot, had never had less than twenty tribes at any given moment, seven of which were quite big and influential. But all tribes follow one leader, the one that leads entire clan. You can only be a leader as long as the tribes like following your way."

"So, who did the tribes of clan Urdnot follow?" Garrus asked as he finished mounting mass effect arrays on one rail and switched to another.

"They followed Jarrod, one of the few warlords that had survived the war with the turians," Wrex replied. "But he was old, and so were his ideas. In fact, 'old' doesn't cut it. Jarrod was plain and simple – a fucking idiot! The lunatic was claiming that the war against turians was never really over. He wanted us to keep fighting, and it didn't matter who it was – turians, salarians, asari, each other… To him, fighting and winning was all that mattered, and it didn't matter against whom or what the cause for the fight was – so long as we fought, and so long as _he_ won. Even if the fight was inside your own clan."

"And what did you want?" Marcus asked.

"I just wanted Jarrod to _shut up_!" Wrex growled, striking against Mako's armor with a wrench for emphasis. "The krogan had had their spirits crushed after the Rebellions, and Jarrod manipulated the tribes by speaking of some misbegotten glory, by stroking their bruised egos. He was a destructive person, leading the tribes astray. I wanted him to stop doing that. I wanted him to understand that the old ways couldn't work. We didn't have the ships to go to war, we didn't have the weapons to go to war, we didn't have factories to support the war. Hell, we didn't even have numbers to go to war, and genophage made sure that we stayed that way! So, I tried making the old fool see that we needed to focus on breeding, at least for one generation."

"Did you even manage to achieve any of the things you wanted?" Marcus asked.

"Surprisingly, I did," Wrex said. "A few of the tribes started following my ways, ignoring Jarrod's calls to war. Two of the larger tribes were among those, which made it hard for Jarrod to stop everyone outright. And for a little while, we started to pull through. Some of the tribes were starting to come around from losing numbers. Genophage killed just the same, yes, but less fighting meant that more pups were being born than adult krogan were being killed!"

Krogan faces were hard to read, but Wrex's face seemed to have light up for a bit there.

"It must've made you real popular," Garrus commented. "Something tells me Jarrod didn't appreciate that."

Wrex's face darkened again. "He didn't," he admitted. "I knew he wanted me dead, but my small tribe was strong and, like all krogan, we were always well armed and ready to fight. So, the bastard arranged a crush. A meeting on neutral grounds. He wanted to talk. He chose The Hollows, a place where the graves of our most hallowed ancestors are. It was as sacred as any krogan place can be. Violence is forbidden, and so are firearms. The only thing that would be allowed at the place where we met were daggers – a symbol, nothing more."

"Something tells me you accepted the call, even though you yourself suspected it was a trap," Marcus said.

"True on both accounts," Wrex said.

"So, why did you do it?"

"Because despite whatever the rest of the Galaxy might think, the krogan have a very high sense of morality values, some of which even the worst of the bunch will hold sacred. And when your own father invites you to a crush, well…"

"Your father?" Garrus asked incredulously, his mandibles spreading wide and low.

"Jarrod?" Marcus asked in turn.

"Yes," Wrex replied. "He was my father until that day; because he did one of the most amoral things amongst my kind that day, and I owed nothing to him anymore. Nobody in their right mind would think they did. We met and talked that day, but we didn't get anywhere. When it was clear that I wouldn't join him, he gave the signal.

"His men leapt from the graves of our ancestors like the krogan undead! A whole two dozen of them; maybe more. And they were armed with much more than just ceremonial daggers. Suffice it to say, those few men that were loyal to me who followed me there had died quickly.

"I escaped with my life, but not before I sank my dagger deep into Jarrod's chest, all the way into the lung neural cluster. He died choking, unable to take a breath, knowing in his last moments that he had failed to kill me.

"When I reached my tribe's stronghold, however, all that waited for me was a smoking ruin. Jarrod had planned his betrayal long before he attacked me at the Hollows, obviously. Only a handful of my tribesmen and women that had happened to be away from our stronghold had survived. Everybody else was killed – my fellow warriors, our females, and even our pups."

There was a moment of silence.

"You had a child?" Marcus asked.

"No," Wrex shook his head. "But it was a small comfort. I cared for every single of my tribe's pups like they were my own. The Urdnot tribes had gathered for a Great Crush because of what had transpired, and I had confronted Jarrod's commanders and the men that did the betrayal. I wanted the rest of the tribes to do something. But the laws had stated that I had already dispensed revenge by killing Jarrod. Conveniently, the deaths of pups were not defended by our laws, because the laws were written when we could breed by the hundreds, and when loss of a generation of pups meant nothing. And the other tribe leaders had the gall to say it to my face that those laws knew what's best for our species."

There was a snapping sound, and Wrex looked down in surprise to where he had unconsciously snapped a titanium wrench in half with his bare hands. He threw the pieces away and sighed.

"That is why I left," Wrex finished. "And that's why I'm never going back. The rest of the krogan had clearly demonstrated that they do not care whether our species lives or dies. Why should I?"

There was a moment of silence.

"No," Marcus spoke up from where he was leaning against the unarmored turret, shaking his head gently as he scrutinized Wrex with a discerning gaze. "I don't believe that."

Wrex looked up at him. "Don't believe what?"

Marcus straightened up, standing to his full height on Mako's rooftop, not losing the eye contact with the huge krogan.

"I refuse to believe that you don't care what happens to your species," he stated with cold anger. "Everything you said and everything you did proves that you have had a vision for the krogan that surpasses everything that your entire species has done for the past two thousand years. And you mean to tell me that you are going to allow that one single event to determine the course of the rest of your life and that of your species?"

"And what the hell do you want me to do about it, Shepard?!" Wrex growled in angry exasperation.

Marcus stepped off from the ledge of the Mako's rooftop and dropped down firmly on his feet with a solid thud, right in front of Wrex.

"I want you to go back there to Tuchanka and grab all of the clans – not tribes, but clans – by their noses, twist them down so it hurts, and then pound some sense into their thick skulls with your own fist!" he said.

"So, you want me to kill more of my kind as an excuse to save them?" Wrex countered. "How different is that from what Jarrod did?"

"And how many of them have you killed as a mercenary?" Marcus shot right back.

"I'm a fighter. That's what I do!" Wrex growled.

"No, that's _not_ what a fighter does," Marcus countered. "A fighter fights for what matters to him! You may be a krogan, and you may love to fight, but you're not Jarrod. You ask me what's the difference between you and him? I'll tell you. The difference between you and Jarrod is that krogan like Jarrod kill pups; krogan like Wrex, however, kill Jarrods – those Jarrods that kill those pups."

Wrex sighed in annoyance. "Are you trying to make me cry, Shepard?"

"I'm trying to make you _act,_ Wrex," Marcus replied. "Look at the Galaxy right now. They all play at some Galactic unity and harmony when, in fact, it is far from the truth. Keeping everyone divided and weak is how the great powers have always kept their power. The genophage did nothing to kill the krogan; it's the krogan that are killing the krogan, and unless someone appears and stops them, they really _are_ going to go extinct. Are you going to just sit back and allow the krogan to be destroyed or are you going to do something about it?"

"And you think that someone to unite the krogans is me?" Wrex asked skeptically. _Or… didn't that sound more like acquiescence_ , Marcus's inner voice called.

"A man that managed to force several tribes of Urdnot clan to do as he thought was best, not for his own sake, but for the sake of everyone else – and he was only a couple hundred years old?" Marcus pointed out and then spread his arms. "Do you know of any other krogan like that? And guess what? That very same krogan had spent some time honing his skills out in the Galaxy, using his head to earn credits, and I'm not talking headbutting. You go back on that planet, Wrex, and believe me when I say that all the other krogan together won't stand a chance."

There were a few moments of tense silence as Wrex and Marcus stared each other up.

"There's just no way I am going to just drop back down to Tuchanka and say 'here I am'," Wrex growled. "If I am going to do anything, I am going to do it _right_ , or not do it at all. Because there are some things that are left unfinished that need to be taken care of first."

"Such as?" Marcus demanded.

Wrex was silent for a couple of moments, measuring Marcus up with a steely gaze.

"Before I left, I swore an oath to my father's father that I would reclaim the ancient battle armor of Urdnot clan," Wrex said at last.

"Some kind of ceremonial artifact?" Marcus guessed.

"In a manner of speaking," Wrex said. "It was worn by five generations of my Urdnot leaders, which means it was made before krogan had developed gunpowder. Useless junk, as far as the modern combat is concerned, really. But that armor was worn by the very founder of Clan Urdnot, 6700 years ago. It is rightfully mine."

"Where is the armor now?" Marcus asked.

"It was confiscated by the turians when the Rebellions ended. We weren't allowed any weapons or armor back then, but them confiscating that particular armor – one that was worthless in modern-age battles and used only in leadership ceremonies – well, that was only meant to humiliate us.

"Today, that armor is in the hands of one Ton Actus, a turian who's involved in a whole variety of illegal activities, all of which are served to fuel his thirst for rare artifacts and antiquities. He has a chain of hidden bases throughout the Attican Traverse through which he moves his goods. Most of the bases are empty and abandoned at any given moment, being leased to various illegal groups during that time. I'd have struck already, but I don't know where my armor is at the moment, or where it will be tomorrow. If I strike and miss, Ton Actus will know who I was and why I came there, and I may never see my armor again. The birdbrain is spiteful enough to destroy my armor and send me the vid of it being done."

"I'll take care of finding your armor," Marcus said coolly. "I have the means now."

Wrex was looking at him searchingly. "Alright. I'll trust you to do it. But, Shepard… I want to be there when you find him."

"Deal," Marcus said and offered his hand, which Wrex took in a firm handshake.

Wrex rumbled pensively as they separated their hands, and then looked sideways and up to where Garrus was leaning against the main gun's barren rails and looking down at the two of them, waiting for them to finish.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Wrex barked. "This AAC won't rebuild its gun on its own!"

"AAC?" Garrus asked as Wrex clambered up on top of the vehicle.

"Armored Assault Craft," Wrex replied.

Garrus shared a look with Marcus, and the human shrugged.

"It's as good a classification as any," Marcus said, and then climbed onto the Mako as well.

.

* * *

 _ **I appreciate all the positive reviews you've given me, everyone! I hope that, in this time of the new challenges - of which the Andromeda will be the foremost - you won't forget about everything that the Original Trillogy stands for. And if you look around all these amazing stories that exist on this site, you will see what I'm talking about. The Andromeda will never be able to recreate all those awe-inspiring Alternate First Contact War stories - the scale, the political struggle, the vast armies. Not even Self-Inserts can be the same. The Andromeda will herald a completely new storm of Fictions. And despite being eager to read them, I cannot help but feel a sudden punch to the gut at the thought that all these AWESOME ME1-2-3 fictions might be abandoned. Call it nostalgia at its worst, but I simply cannot leave the Originals. They are simply too amazing. Let us all hope that doesn't happen.**_

 ** _Geralt out!_**


	22. Chapter 22 - The Empress' New Suit

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _Hello there, everyone! I'm baaack!_

 _It was as I said – this, almost a month-long pause in updates, has been scheduled, and_ _ **the pause is finished**_ _! As of this chapter, the semi-regular updates of before will resume._

 _I had taken this time to relax a bit and perhaps review where I'm at in the story and see what can I improve. This chapter is a result of that. It was exceptionally hard for me to write this chapter because it features and focuses on female characters and their character development. The previous chapter saw the male part of the Normandy's crew bonding. This one features girls. So, you be the judge of what it was like. I hope to see a lot of reviews to help me out in that regard._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 14.4.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes (to an extent), Economic themes (there are some), Intrigue (a bit o' that, too)…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 22 – The Empress' New Suit**

.

Jaina stood at the Normandy's command platform as their ship went through the approach vector toward the fuel and resupply depot orbiting the system's gas giant, overseeing the progress.

"Approaching is green," Pressly called. "Intercept trajectory assumed, approaching at five hundred meters per second; distance: twenty kilometers. Prepare for the deceleration maneuver – ETA: thirty-five seconds."

" _Yessir,_ " Joker called back from the cockpit, " _slow and boring, by-the-book approach to waste as little fuel as possible – coming right up!_ "

The corner of Jaina's lips quirked upward and she chuckled under her breath.

"Let's be quick about this," she declared. "We need to top-up our tanks, _fast,_ and that final Cerberus base on the list ain't gonna wait for us. Joker – take us in, fast and reckless."

" _Yes ma'am!_ " he shouted out eagerly. She could almost see him jerking up in his seat and grabbing the controls.

The Normandy instantly spun and the mass effect fields surged to power, the ship bolting like a lightning toward the station. An emergency ping from the station hailed them frantically, trying to notify them of an imminent collision danger, when Joker suddenly braked their speed, swooping in under the slingshot assistance from the Normandy's mighty mass effect gravity wells and slid next to the docking arm as gently as a lover's kiss.

The snarky pilot whooped from his post:

" _Wasn't that some flying skill or what! The station hands must've pissed their pants! How was it, Commander? Five seconds instead of fifty!"_

"Keep that up under fire and I'll buy you a beer," she declared off-handedly, then tapped her comms of an incoming call.

" _What the hell was that stunt, Captain?"_ the station's superintendent demanded with a mix of shock, fear, and anger in his suddenly-croaking voice.

"Sorry about that, Captain, but we're on a series of time-critical tasks," she responded professionally, sending out Marcus's prepared Spectre credentials that were tied to the ship. "We need the refueling to start immediately."

There was a moment of pause from the other end, then, " _Uhh… well… just try not to scare the bejeezus out of us next time, alright?! There… the automated pipelines are connecting right about… now. I see you have 700 tons of maximum fuel capacity, with fifty-five tons remaining. You want a top-up?"_

"Affirmative," she said.

" _Understood, Normandy. This will take approximately twenty minutes._ "

"Thank you, Captain, Normandy out," she said, then ended the comm and walked down from the platform and moved to a corner of the CIC, switching to the personal comms. "Hey, it's me. We've docked and have initiated the refueling sequence. ETA: 20 minutes. How're things on your end?"

" _Smooth and on schedule,_ " Marcus reported from the cargo hold. " _Garrus, Wrex, and I have just about finished the job from yesterday. The new turret is fully installed and armored up; we just need to test the rotation and calibrate the controls. As for the second Mako, the other team has successfully finished replacing the suspension with hover system and is armoring it up."_

"Is Tali still busy?" she homed in, narrowing her eyes and a smirk appearing on her lips.

" _She is. She still needs to finish calibrating the system."_

"Good," she said, a conniving little grin appearing on her lips.

" _Uh-oh,_ " he called her out on it knowingly. _"I know that tone."_

"Tone?" she spoke in mock-innocence. "What tone?"

" _Now, honey…"_ he cautioned, his own smirk drifting through the connection. " _You're not about to traumatize the poor young girl with something_?"

"Aww, you do care about her," Jaina cooed, then tsk-ed. "I told you she'd grow on everyone's heart. Don't worry, tiger. This is going to be one beautiful surprise. Trust me. And no spreading around, ya hear?"

He chuckled. " _Yeah, I hear._ "

"Good. See ya soon."

She cut the comm, then looked up to where Liara and Ashley stood in front of her and gave each of them a once-over. Both girls carried their sidearm and a light shielding unit on their belts, as per her instructions.

"You two ready?" she called.

"Ready ma'am," Ashley said, tapping the pistol on her hip.

"Good. Let's go," she said and led the way through the CIC toward the airlock at the front of the ship.

"Are we really expecting trouble, ma'am?" Ashley asked.

Jaina shrugged. "You can never know. This is an independent refueling depot. Heavily defended by defense grid, but still… We're hunting a big target, Chief. He might not know our exact movements, but he might have paid some shady mercs to lie in wait for us."

"I know I would, if I was in his shoes," Liara commented darkly.

"Whoah, talk about a growing dark side on your part, Li," Ashley quipped as they piled into the airlock.

"I… know," Liara said, sounding cutely troubled. "Recently I've been worried about that myself."

"Worried?" Ash queried in deceptive wonder. "Why would you be worried? The dark side has many benefits."

"I… know that too," Liara agreed hesitantly. "In information business, the majority of contacts only understands such methods. It is a… necessary evil. I understand it. It's just that… well… it's a slippery slope."

An evil glint flashed in Ashley's eyes.

"Good, Liara, good!" she crooned from close to her side. "You are fulfilling your destiny! Don't fight the Dark Side. Surrender to it! It is a pathway to many abilities, some of which are considered unnatural."

Liara gawked at Ashley. "W-w-wha…?"

"That's right, my young Liara," Ashley continued with a seductive tone, stepping up closer to her. "Become my apprentice, and learn to use the Dark Side of the force. Together, we shall unleash the unspeakable evil across the Galaxy."

Liara's jaw dropped in a wordless shock before realization dawned on her. She narrowed her eyes at the gunnery chief, annoyance rising within her.

"You did that... that human thing on purpose!" Liara said accusingly, stomping her foot.

Ashley's face beamed with wide-eyed joy, and she laughed out loud at the young asari's annoyed look before the hissing of the airlock drowned it out.

" _Equalizing interior pressure with external atmosphere,_ " the VI droned. " _Logged – X.O. is ashore."_

"Got ya, blue," Ashley declared with a victorious grin as the external doors slid open. "Seeing that distressed look on your face and then witnessing you stomping your foot like that was worth all the wait."

Liara harrumphed, folding her arms. "I should have known you'd try some human thing on me the first chance you got," she said dryly.

"Call it a payback for that thing on Feros," Ash quipped cheerfully as she worked her omnitool. "Quite masterfully done back then, I admit. But now it's my turn. And I just bet that this secretly-recorded vid of your adorable reaction is going to become quite a hit on metube!"

Liara's eyes widened in distress. "Don't you dare!" She exclaimed.

"Now, now, Ash," Jaina spoke up amusedly, "You won't be subjecting our ship's crew to an unwanted public eye."

"Aww," Ashley whined with a pout. "No fun, Commander!"

Liara breathed a sigh of relief.

"But you _are_ providing me with a copy of the recording," Jaina said, a mischievous glint flashing in her eyes. "And I'm exercising my superior officer's privileges on that one if I have to!"

"Commander!" Liara whined.

"If you're thinking I'm gonna let go of the vid on which you're being cute, you're sorely mistaken, Dr. T'Soni," Jaina declared with a smirk as she thrust out her omni-tool toward Ashley.

With a broad grin, Ashley promptly downloaded a copy to Jaina's omni-tool, and Jaina took a quick glance at the clear imaging, smiling broadly and biting her lip.

"I'm keeping it for posterity," she declared contently.

Liara just huffed, placing her hands on her hips in a stern, almost uncannily motherly manner - something she must've picked up from her matriarch mother, no doubt – that looked incredibly cute on her.

"Oh, come now, Li," Ash spoke up as she hugged the young asari around her shoulders. "We're just messing with ya a bit. It's quite normal on the ships! What else are we supposed to do on the long trips?"

"Oh, fiiine!" Liara declared resignedly. "But that vid better not be spread around!"

"Scout's honor!" Jaina declared, fighting down a sudden urge to grab Liara and plant a big kiss on the young asari's cheek. The girl was getting under her skin. "Now, come on you two! We have business!"

"Right up, Commander," Ash chirped as she dragged the not-really annoyed young asari along.

Jaina led them down the access corridor and onto the broad pier that spanned the length of the station. One huge wall of reinforced glass spanned the length of the pier, separating the interior from the void and granting view at the few currently-docked ships. The air was filtered, but the scent of metal, lubricant, H-fuel, and He-3 fuel was noticeable in the air. The place was filled with crews busy at their own jobs, transporting gear or working the systems, the buzzing and sparkling of repair tools and welding equipment could be seen and heard all over the place, and the shouts and wheezing of mighty servos filled the air as they maneuvered the loads and pumped fuel.

The three women crossed into the corridors of the station proper, ignoring the people busy at their work, Jaina leading them straight toward her goal.

"What is this sortie about, Jaina," Liara spoke up, drawing attention to the business at hand. "You said you have an important pickup."

"That's right," she said, an air of importance befalling her. "I have ordered a special and very pricey delivery via a courier. It was a very lucky stroke that our paths crossed right on this depot at this moment. We'd have had to track back all the way to Eden Prime otherwise later on."

"Sounds important," Ashley said, her attention turning somber as well.

"It is," Jaina said seriously. "It's something that will ultimately improve the morale and the performance of the entire ground team."

Ash and Liara immediately shared a somber look and both of them began walking with purpose, sensing the air of importance.

"May we ask what is it?" Liara queried.

Jaina was silent, contemplating on what to reveal at the moment.

"I'd rather try to keep it under wraps for now," she said. "At least until we pick up the package; I feel like I don't want to jinx the whole thing." She then stopped and turned around to face the two of them. "The reason I've specifically asked the two of you, rather than anybody else, is because I believe that you two are the only ones from our ground team that have the needed set of skills and character traits for what I need to achieve." She smirked then. "I'm hoping we will be making someone _very_ happy with this package. I hope I can count on you to be the moral support."

Ashley's and Liara's eyebrows shot up before the two women leaned slightly in and spoke almost in unison:

"Absolutely!"

Jaina smirked. "Atta girls! Now, come on. The courier's shuttle is parked in the inner hangar. She won't wait for long."

She led the team into the hangar in question and quickly located the docking clamp that held a typical courier shuttle – a small, boxy transporter ship. An asari in space jumpsuit waited in front of it, checking up on her schedule on the datapad until she saw the three individuals approaching her.

"You're Jaina Shepard?" the asari asked perceptively.

"That'd be me," Jaina said.

"Right. Let me get the package…"

The courier hopped into her ship's cargo hold and picked up a suitcase-sized crate by the carry handle. It didn't appear to be too heavy.

"Here it is," she said, placing the suitcase crate before Jaina and offering her the datapad. "That'll be two hundred and fifty thousand credits."

Liara's and Ashley's eyebrows shot up and Ash whistled in absolute surprise. Jaina ignored them and simply executed the transaction without preamble.

"Daym, ma'am, that was one splurge!" Ashley spoke up.

The asari courier snorted. "I'll say. I've seen far greater transactions, but never one like this. What I don't get is why the hell would anyone want to spend so much money on a suit rat. It's not li _ **GuHHG**_ –!"

Before anyone had blinked, Jaina's hand had lashed out and grabbed the courier's throat in a merciless, vice-like grip.

The asari woman choked, dropping the datapad to the ground and frantically reaching out with both hands up. She clawed at the hand that held her in shock, choking, her fingers bouncing like rubber against the killer soldier's steel pliers that passed as flesh. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't even move; the powerful arm that held her kept her pinned where she stood like it was a steel beam.

And then, the steely arm yanked her back like she was a ragdoll, bringing her face to face with her captor.

"Do I have your undivided attention?" Jaina's icy voice demanded, sending deathly chills down the asari's spine and loosening up something in her bowels. "I don't know what misbegotten logic in that shriveled, mentally-challenged mind of yours made you think that speaking in such a way was a good idea, but if I were you, I'd think very carefully before speaking the next time. You've seen how much money I was willing to pay for that armored suit. That alone should tell you that the person it is intended for ranks _extremely_ high on the list of people that I like. You, on the other hand, don't. And calling the one that does a suit rat is the best way to have me end your thousand-year-life prematurely. Now. Gurgle if you understand."

" _Ghgrhrghl"_ the asari choked out frantically, her face bloated and darkening.

Jaina threw her back, splaying her across the ground where she remained, wheezing deeply as she took the sweetest fresh breath of air in her entire life.

"You have your money," Jaina said coldly. "We're done here." She cast a glance around the hangar, meeting the gazes of several people who immediately returned to studiously appearing to do something.

She then looked over her shoulder at the impressed Ashley and Liara.

"Alright! We have what we came for. Let's get back to the ship," she declared with a sigh, picking up the suitcase crate and leading her small team back toward the Normandy and leaving the hangar bay.

"Damn, Commander," Ashley spoke up in amazement, a huge grin spreading across her lips. "Remind me never to get you angry!"

"Just use your brains, Ash, and we'll always be good," Jaina said with a small smirk.

"That woman, though, sure as hell deserved it," Liara declared, her velvety voice low and threatening. "To talk to our faces about quarians like that. To talk about _Tali_ like that! Unforgivable."

"Yeah – Commander?" Ash called, her interest peaking. "That suit you bought – it's for Tali, isn't it?"

"Don't worry, Chief – yours, Kaidan's, and Garrus's new armors will be coming up as well," Jaina allayed her fears, her demeanor cheering up once more. "Yours take more time to customize because you're the frontline combatants; it requires stronger plates and armature."

"Oh! I… th-thank you, ma'am – though that's not really what I was getting at!" Ash replied in a fluster.

"That's right," Liara added, growing eager. "You've actually provided for a new suit for Tali? I don't know the finer details of quarian culture, but I know gifting a suit to a quarian is a big thing! And an expensive one like this!"

"I'll say," Ash quipped. "Most armor suits cost no more than thirty thousand credits. This one's, like, eight times that! And how did you even _find_ a quarian suit of armor? Shouldn't they come from the Migrant Fleet?"

"Not in this case," Jaina declared victoriously. "I had ordered a custom suit for Tali from a small, but high-end private manufacturer. I did my homework before ordering it; they know what they're doing."

"And how did you get the right size?" Liara asked.

"From the medical checkup Chakwas did on everyone when we started this mission," she replied, then added sagely, "She's my co-conspirator in this."

"Oh!"

"Yeah, but that still leaves the question of how is she gonna change?" Ashley pointed out, frowning as she thought on it. "I mean, isn't the whole point of their suits to, well – not get out of them?"

"You forget that the medical bay has the built-in decontamination and sterilization system for surgeries," Jaina pointed out. "The entire med bay and everyone inside it can be deep-clean in seconds!"

"Ohhh!"

"And _that_ is where our part comes in," Jaina continued. "This is going to be a surprise for Tali. A _big_ surprise. She may be shocked or she may be overjoyed. Whatever the case, I feel it would be best if she felt she wasn't alone in this – that it isn't just us temporarily investing in a soldier. I want her to know that this means something. I have a feeling she would want someone to be there to tell her how good it looks on her. So, once we lure her into the med bay, the three of us are going to put on face re-breather masks and activate the decon process. Tali can't breathe the same room air as other people present but, with the masks on _our_ faces for a change, she won't have to."

Ashley and Liara's eyes spread wide and the two young women shared a quick look.

"Ma'am, are you telling us that we get to see Tali's face?!" Ashley asked eagerly.

"Don't jump from joy yet, Chief," Jaina warned. "We only get to see it _if_ she feels comfortable enough. That is why I want you two here. Girls need to stick together. If she is to feel comfortable, she needs to be with her own bunch. No guys!"

"Damn straight, ma'am!" Ash declared.

"If, however, she feels uncomfortable, we leave. Got it?"

"Got it!" "Yes ma'am," Liara and Ash spoke in turn.

"Good," Jaina said with satisfaction as they entered the Normandy's airlock. "Now, let's get on with this."

* * *

.

"Everything's ready," Chakwas said as she finished up the work on her terminal, then turned to the waiting Jaina. "You can call Tali up here now."

Jaina nodded to her and then to Liara and Ashley, who stood at the sides trying not to show their eagerness. Tapping her comms, she contacted the young quarian:

"Tali, it's Jaina. You busy?"

" _We've just finished with calibrating the second Mako's new hover system_ ," the lilting accent came through. " _Is there something you need me for?_ "

"Yes, we need you here in the med bay. It's important."

" _At once, Commander!"_ Tali replied readily, ending the comm.

A few minutes later, the med bay's doors swished open and Tali promptly entered, stopping to cast a sweeping glance around the room.

The sight of the other four women instantly made her jitters rise. It wasn't fear, not really, but… all four women's eyes were square on her and all four were smiling! Or, badly trying to contain their smiles, more like. It made her feel like a small kid that was facing four adults who knew something that she didn't. It made her start rubbing her hands and fidget nervously as she looked around.

Doctor Chakwas's smile was motherly, Jaina had a knowing smile of a big sister, Ash was barely keeping herself from beaming outright, and Liara was merely schooling her features into a small, neutral smile.

W-well, I-I'm here…" Tali stammered lightly. "W-what's this about?"

Jaina sent her a small, reassuring smile as she walked around Tali.

"First, let me lock the doors so we can all have some privacy," she said and tapped the code into the interface. "There. Now. Tali. We've called you here because we have something for you."

"Something for me?" Tali parroted as she processed. "W-what is it?"

"It's this," Jaina said as she walked to the side and tapped the suitcase-sized crate that stood on one of the medical beds.

Tali looked around only to see encouraging looks from others. She approached the crate and examined it.

"What's inside?"

"Something that we think that you'll like very much," Jaina said. "But, there's a trick to it we need to work around. You see, it would require you to remove your mask and helm."

Tali looked alarmed, then rubbed her hands nervously.

"I… I see…" she said. "Well, it can be perfectly possible for me to remove my entire helmet for a brief span of time and not have a completely debilitating or deathly infection… B-but, Commander, even then, I'd run a fever! I'd have a running nose and I wouldn't be that good in a fight anymore. Ah! But I am ready to do it if it needs to be done!" she added, making a strong facade.

Jaina chuckled.

"Well, fortunately for you, we have a major workaround for that," she said, then turned to Karin. "Doctor?"

Chakwas approached Tali, carrying a hypospray.

"Your medical induction port, darling, if you please," Chakwas said in a warm, motherly tone.

Tali thrust out the underside of her wrist where a small circular port stood. Chakwas promptly placed the injector and the contents of the vial emptied into the suit's medical distribution reserves.

"An advanced dextro-based antibiotic, metabolic stimulant, and immuno-booster cocktail," Chakwas clarified. "With an extra kick, I might add."

Tali could only agree as she felt an energetic boost begin to coarse through her system.

"And now," Chakwas spoke up imperiously, looking at the rest of them. "Ladies, if you please!"

All of them, Chakwas included, took out transparent facial masks that they placed over their nose and mouths, the filters in them set to block _all_ germ transfer, both in and out. Tali watched with interest as they activated their masks and Chakwas made a few commands on her omni-tool.

A droning VI's voice sounded over the medbay's intercom:

" _Medical decontamination process initiated._ "

Tali looked up in alarm as fine mist filled the room and a glowing field descended from above, beginning to burn away all microbes – both in the air and on all surfaces it passed over.

"J-Jaina, no!" Tali exclaimed. "Medical decontamination hurts on unprotected skin!"

"Meh, we're soldiers," Ashley dismissed with a shrug. "It'll tingle."

Before Tali could voice any more complaints, the field reached them and began to pass down over their heads. Like an electric current, it began burning across the humans' and asari's skin, the complex mass effect and energy fields eliciting discomfort as the induction made them wiggle all the way into their clothes.

" _Decontamination complete. Estimated 99.99% of organic particles removed,"_ the VI declared.

And just like that, it was over.

"Whew! That was stimulating!" Jaina declared as she patted down her hair that stuck out in all directions after the currents had passed through it.

"W… why would you do that?!" Tali exclaimed, her tone chastising.

"Because we're your friends, Tali," Jaina spoke softly. "We care for you, and we want you to have this luxury of removing your helmet for this."

Tali just stood there dumbfounded, then attempted to speak, only managing to get out an intelligible choke in her first attempt.

"Y… you wanted to go that far for me?" she spoke in a small voice, her hands clasped together in front of her chest.

"Sure did," Jaina said, smiling, her eyes beaming at her. "So, how about it? Feel comfortable enough to entrust us with what you look like underneath?"

Tali looked from her face to the other two, equally eager and supportive, and then nodded once.

Jaina, Ashley, and Liara held their breath and leaned in attentively, filled with trepidation as Tali reached up and began unclasping her mask and helmet. What would she look like? Was she pretty? Was she exotic? Was she ugly? Was she weird? It all passed through their heads as Tali's clasps clicked and hissed, and the three women braced themselves.

Tali pulled her cowl back, unclasped her mask, and pulled off the back half of her helm. Grabbing the two in one hand, she swiped the other through the nape of her neck, loosening up the luscious black hair.

"W-well," she spoke uncertainly, her beautiful, lilting voice clear and unmodulated by the helm's speakers. "T-this is me."

She looked around at the three women, only to see them staring back at her like cats that had seen their favorite toy – big-eyed and pupils dilated. Tali felt trepidation in the pit of her stomach, reaching up and rubbing her cheek.

"I… is there's s-something wrong?"

"OMG, so cuuuuute!" Ashley squealed out loud, pouncing onto the poor girl and beginning to fawn all over her.

The other two women were not that far behind at all, instantly closing in and beginning to touch, hug, and caress all the while releasing cooing and crooning sounds.

"Aww, you'we so adowabve, Tawi!"

"So beautifuw!"

"Do you see how her eyes are glowing? It's mesmerizing!"

"And she's bwushing so cutewy! OMG, I want to squeeze hew so badwy!"

"And what beautifuw, luscious hair she has!"

"I knoooow, just like my baby sisters'! I want to comb it!"

A gasp. "Goddess, look how her cheeks are soft."

Another gasp. "OMG, you'we wight!"

"Must be because quarians don't eat much solid food, right? Owww, Tawi, you've so adowabve!"

Doctor Chakwas was standing to the side and chuckling quietly as she kept covertly snapping photos from her omni-tool.

The three girls were painfully right, though: Tali was unbearably adorable. Her matronly composure was about the only thing that kept her from diving in and trying to squeeze the poor girl to death with cuddles. The other three, their tough commander included, did not have such self-control in this particular case. And, frankly, she couldn't blame them. She felt that even the toughest, hardiest soldiers would melt at seeing the flustered quarian girl blushing profusely as she was right now.

"Alright, break it up," Chakwas demanded, stepping in to break apart the girly gaggle. "Leave the poor girl with some air!"

The other three moved away reluctantly, leaving a panting Tali in the center.

"W-wha…? Wh-what was that? W… why were you all talking that way that you, um, were?" Tali asked as she reached for her breath, feeling overwhelmed at the pleasure she had from feeling another person's touch on her skin.

"We can't hewp it," Jaina said apologetically. "It's just what we do when we see beautiful, cute, and cuddly things."

Tali looked at her incredulously, then looked down to the ground.

"Y… you really think I'm beautiful?" she asked hopefully.

"They're not kidding, dear," Chakwas said seriously, but with a warm, matronly smile.

Tali's cheeks darkened, but her lips widened into a shy smile.

"Um… th-thank you," she said softly.

"Aww, don't mention it, hun," Ash replied. "It's your birth right to know how beautiful you are!"

"Why don't we get on with the matter at hand?" Chakwas prompted. "The area is sterile for the time being, and we might be wearing filter masks, but our bodies are still slowly exuding organic particles through our pores. We wouldn't want Tali to become sick, now would we?"

"No, we would not!" Liara agreed readily, casting a look at Jaina, who promptly approached the crate they had initially shown to Tali.

"And, here it is," Jaina declared, opening up the crate's lid for Tali to see inside.

For a few moments, Tali just stood there, wordlessly staring at the beautiful quarian suit of armor that was neatly packed inside, almost as if not comprehending what she was seeing.

The suit was a female quarian's suit – that much was obvious from the face mask and torso shape – but everything else was so much different from what typical quarian suits were like. Where a typical quarian suit always showed a bit of surface wear, this one was obviously brand new. And more than that!

Glossy black and gold – those were the colors. Her eyes trailed the fine pattern of small hexagonal plates that covered the surface, their black glossy shine reflecting the medbay lights. The gold-colored plated rings covered the neck and descended down the collar bone and chest area in a simplistic, yet elegant manner. The numerous sections showed elegantly-concealed and tucked-in pockets and compartments, and many clasps all over the suit marked the spots where the traditional scarf could be draped around in many, many intricate ways.

Her mind was working furiously.

Why was there a quarian suit here? Why was there _an extremely high-quality_ suit here? Why were they showing it to her? Keelah, did they intend this suit for…? No! No way it was that! Why would anyone want to give her…? Especially one this beautiful and obviously expensive? No, this suit must've been pillaged in one of the raids and they must want her to examine it, to lend them her quarian expertise. Something might be off with the suit, and that's why they're showing it to her, hoping she could figure it out or maybe retrieve some damaged logs. Yes, that must be it!

"A-a-a quarian suit," she managed at last.

" _Your_ new suit," Jaina said softly from her side.

Tali's eyes shot up to meet hers, her pretty face showing clear shock. It was as if she couldn't comprehend – no, refused to comprehend.

"M… _mine_?" Tali asked in a small voice.

"That's right," Jaina continued softly, placing her hand supportively between Tali's shoulder blades. "We bought it for you using our Spectre funding. Jormangund Technology. Look here," Jaina drew her attention, passing her hand over the suit's surface. "It's a Mark X modified Hazard-class hybrid light-medium suit. The main part is the light suit for everyday use, and these are removable external plates that you can latch on for when you go into combat situations. They offer 60% overall coverage and 90% torso coverage, designed to offer mobility. The generator produces a 650-kilojoule shield with a 10-kilojoule impact threshold and the suit itself provides a complete level-2 environmental protection. And, furthermore, it sports a Grade-5 advanced internal hygiene system with an integrated adaptive VI for adapting to the specific user's bodily needs.

"But that's nothing compared to the fact that this suit has Sirta's advanced neural stimulation layer to simulate the sensation on the skin when someone touches your suit, especially on your hands and fingertips – intended to improve your ability to function through the gloves – but with proper omni-tool integration, you can increase the amount and location of neural stimulators wherever you need on the interior of your suit!"

Jaina stopped then and reached out to gently raise the completely floored Tali's chin to meet her gaze.

"And we want you to have this suit, Tali. It's yours. And we're _**not**_ talking about you ever returning it. Once this whole Saren thing is done – you're taking it with you. Understand?"

The slack-jawed Tali worked her lips for a couple of moment, her glowing white irises looking even wider.

"M… m… _mine_?" Tali parroted. "Th… you bought this suit f-for me… to keep f… forever?"

Jaina smiled, nodding, with Ashley and Liara joining in with their nods, beaming at the flabbergasted quarian. For a moment, Tali just looked from one to the other, shellshock obvious on her cute face. And then, her lips pursed together, scrunching up, and her big, shiny eyes welled up with tears.

" _Sniff, sniff… WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!_ "

The bawling exploded through the medbay as Tali's tightly-shut eyes began pouring rivers of tears down her cheeks.

The smiles that the other women had instantly shifted to faces and stances of alert and confusion. For a few short seconds, nobody dared utter the first words as the pitiful wailing continued unabashed.

"We're sorry!" Ashley exclaimed first, taking a half-crouch and raising her hands in a calming motion. "Oh, my god, Tali, We're _**so sorry**_ _!_ Whatever we might have done wrong or have offended you, we didn't mean to!"

Jaina and Liara could only nod furiously, their instincts yelling at them to hold the crying girl in a tight hug but fearing it might be the wrong thing to do.

"Nooo, it's not thaaaat!" Tali cried. " _Sniff, sniff_ … y-you've been so good to meee!"

"…Th… then, why are you crying?" Liara queried in genuine wonder.

"B- _sniff-_ b- _sniff_ -because wherever us, quarians, go, we're always met with hatred and disgust!" She bawled. "They call us suit rats, thieves, vagrants… they force us to leave whenever they meet us, sometimes even at gunpoint! They treat us like bottom-class citizens and treat us even worse than Vorcha. They only force the vorcha out, but quarians they denigrate and insult, and seek to pick on us whenever they can because they know that the authorities will not do anything about it – _sniff… sniff_ –Keelah! It is because of that treatment that my friend Keenah and all of Honorata's crew got killed! We sought refuge from Saren on Ilium, but the flight control delayed us on purpose because they were prejudiced. And when we went to the Citadel to warn Council about Saren, they threatened us, forcing us to leave under an impossible deadline. And he died because of them. Everybody was prejudiced and hateful… But not you!

" _Sniff_ – You've been nothing but good to me! You've saved me, listened to me, taken me with you – no! You've taken me _in_! You've made me a member of the ship's crew – something that each quarian strives to be – and not only that, but you've made me _feel like a_ _valued_ _member_ of the crew! You let me help with your ship's systems. You showed me around. Keelah, you've bothered to provide flavored and spiced dextro-nutrient pastes for me! You've provided meat paste! Meat! Do you know how rarely quarians get that?

"And now – _sniff_ – and now – _**sniff**_ – now you've provided a new suit for me!" she cried in a small, high-pitched voice. "A new and expensive suit… _sniff-sniff_! A suit so good that I don't think anyone in the entire flotilla might have one like it! _Sniff… sniff… hiccup_! So, no, I'm not sad or offended. I'm happy! I've never felt this happy and accepted in my entire liiiife! WAAAAAAAAHHH!"

The hearts of other women melted in their chests and it showed on their faces as they looked amongst each other, small smiles of compassion spreading across their faces.

Jaina tsk-ed. "Oww, honeeyyy… come here!" she crooned and stepped in, hugging Tali close to her chest, with Ashley and Liara stepping up close to form a protective triangle around the crying girl, rubbing comforting circles across her back.

"There we go – cry it all out," Jaina urged her as Tali leaned her forehead into the crook of the older woman's neck, sniffing and bawling for the next minute or two. When she had calmed down, Jaina looked down at her, meeting her shiny white gaze and adorable tear-streaked cheeks.

"There… all better?" She queried softly.

Tali nodded. " _Sniff… hiccup… hiccup –_ yes, I – _Achoo_!" she sneezed into Jaina's neck, making Jaina laugh.

"Keelah, I'm so sorry, Jaina!" Tali whined cutely in embarrassment.

"Nah, I figure your sneezes are like baby's – all clean and harmless," Jaina declared as she wiped her neck with a sterile tissue she took from Chakwas.

"That sneeze wasn't comforting, though," Ashley spoke up, fawning worriedly over Tali.

"I'll be fine, honest," Tali replied. "It's quite normal to sneeze or cough when changing suits."

"It might still be smart if we were to hurry and help you into your new suit – don't you think?" Liara said sagely.

"Y-yeah," Tali said, a beautiful smile breaking out on her face.

"Come now, let's get you out of your old suit and set you up into your new one," Jaina declared to Tali nodding and promptly beginning to unclasp the rest of her suit.

Under the comforting privacy of an all-female company, Tali quickly went through the motions. The old suit was fully removed, after which Chakwas had her stand on a circular medical platform as a pair of robotic medical arms went down her body, spraying her with a fine, instant-vaporizing cleaning mist and scrubbing field used to clean patients before surgery.

Feeling squeaky clean, Tali eagerly went down to don her new suit, assisted by the three eager women. One clasp and one piece after another, the suit went up around Tali's body until only her head remained uncovered.

"Hold on, everyone," Chakwas called. "Let us get you, girls, all together and snap off a couple of pictures."

"Yes!" they all exclaimed readily, and the four women huddled close around Tali.

The young quarian's face was a vision of joy as she held her soft, round cheek pressed against Ashley's, Liara pressed against her back, and Jaina behind them all holding them in a hug.

"There we go! All done," Chakwas declared.

" _Achoo!_ ," came from Tali. " _Sniff,_ I better put that helmet on. I think we've reached the limit on how much I can safely be unsuited for now."

She promptly donned the helmet, sealing it in, and finally putting on the mask. Jaina, Ashley, and Liara looked amongst each other, silently sharing their sadness of not being able to see Tali's face anymore or, at least, for a while. With her suit fully secured and working, the other women finally removed the transparent rebreather masks from around their mouths and noses.

"Let me just place my scarf and I'll be set," Tali said, picking up her violet scarf.

"Oh, nonono, wait," Ashley spoke up, stopping her. "Now that we've seen how beautiful you are underneath, there's just no way we're letting you wear that scarf the way you did before – all tight and flat against your helmet. You have beautiful hair! Like my Lynn! That scarf should be worn to emulate that!"

"She has a point, Tali," Jaina spoke up, titling her head. "A girl should dress up to be beautiful, and you most definitely deserve to emphasize your beauty with whatever you have."

Tali rubbed her now helmeted cheek bashfully, looking to the side.

"I-if you think so."

"Oh, we most definitely do," Liara declared as she approached together with Ashley and took the very long scarf off of Tali's hands.

"Let's begin like this," Ashley spoke up, and the two women quickly began to intricately weave the scarf around Tali's body, hooking and securing it with clasps and belts on the armor suit's surface.

First they rolled it around her left thigh, then up diagonally over her pelvic region, around her waist, up her back, to her shoulder, making a cowl around her head, then back again diagonally over the other shoulder down to the other side, around waist, crisscrossing over her pelvic region again, down to her right thigh and tying it around.

As Liara secured the scarf with belts and button clasps, Ashley fussed like a big sister would over Tali's cowl. With a few skillful touchups, she made the cowl appear flowing and bountiful, almost like she was hiding her luscious hair directly beneath. Tali herself finished up by redressing her belt and her decorative gloves and elbow wrappings that shared the scarf's pattern.

"And, there we go," Ashley said self-contently as she finally secured Tali's cowl with the pair of clasps on her collar bones. "There. Now, you look absolutely beautiful."

Tali looked herself over in the mirror they provided and spent a long time just absorbing her new looks. Jaina, Liara, and Ashley didn't feel like disturbing her in the least. Finally, after a few long, silent minutes, Tali turned around to the rest of them, emotion thick in her voice:

"Th… thank you," she said. "Thank you all for this."

"Aww. What are friends for, hun!" Ash gushed, stepping up and hugging Tali with one hand around her shoulder. "Now, though, it's time we go out and show everyone your awesome new looks!"

"Yes. Let's," Liara said eagerly, stepping up to the other side and leading her out.

Jaina stayed for a few moments, watching the trio leave the medbay hand-in-hand and sighed contently.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Chakwas spoke from her side. "Helping another being. It's amazing to see how we're all incredibly human, regardless of whether we have scales or hair."

"Yeah," Jaina spoke wistfully, looking after the girls. "You're right, Doc."

Chakwas smiled as she appraised Jaina's far-away expression. "Pretty amazing how our young and adventurous Chief Williams took to our young quarian, don't you think?"

"I think that Tali reminded her fiercely of her baby sisters," Jaina commented. "Ash is a family kind of person, and she misses her sisters something fierce, I think. Seeing Tali must've evoked something in her." She chuckled. "She was all over the poor girl."

"Indeed," Chakwas agreed. "I've noticed she exuded a clear xenophobic vibe when she first came onto Normandy. Now, that sense seems to have disappeared like it was swiped away by a giant hand… as if it had never been there."

"And I'm glad to see that it has worked," Jaina said. "I had staked all my chips on this – that us helping Tali would evoke a reaction like that. I had hoped that she'd see that Tali – that all aliens, in fact – are deep down really human."

Chakwas chuckled. "It worked like a charm if you ask me. Might have something to do with Tali crying her soul out. My, but she _is_ an adorable girl, isn't she?"

"M-hm," Jaina agreed.

"I think that all the others will agree as well once they see the vid of you three fawning all over her like schoolgirls when she removed her helmet."

"M-hm… Wait. What?!"

"You heard me, Commander," Chakwas declared mirthfully to Jaina's alarm.

"Wait, wouldn't that be some kind of doctor-patient confidentiality breech?" Jaina croaked.

"In your dreams, Commander," Chakwas retorted. "Nonetheless, we wouldn't want the broader crew to get hold of this, now would we?"

Jaina narrowed her eyes incredulously. "Is this you blackmailing me into that checkup I've been dodging?"

An evil glint flashed in Karin's eye. "Well now, you _did_ remember! How about you be a good girl and our Commander Marcus gets to be _the only_ recipient of the aforementioned vid."

A groan of defeat climbed its way out of Jaina's throat as her forehead fell against the wall.

"That's the spirit!" Chakwas declared mirthfully. "You lock the doors and remove your clothes, and I'll prepare the poking and prodding tools."

A louder groan echoed through the chamber.

.

* * *

 _ **ADDENDUM**_

 _In the wake of Andromeda, I feel there's a moderate need for me to declare and elaborate some of my intentions regarding this story – mostly regarding the technical aspects to avoid conflicting facts. There are NO SPOILERS concerning my story and few minor spoilers concerning Andromeda – but I figure all of you must've seen those already on youtube or such._

 _I've gotten my hands on Andromeda a few days ago and have played it a bit. However, I have also explored a lot of its Codex wherever I could find it, mostly regarding the technologies described therein. I didn't like what I saw._

 _Namely, I have noticed several technology inconsistencies of the Andromeda with the original Mass Effect that make me uncomfortable. I will need to research this more to be sure, obviously, but most of what I've seen makes Andromeda Initiative technology appear much more advanced than the most advanced technologies of the Milky Way militaries combined – going so far as to use some technological facts that mass effect technology shouldn't be able to do if one thinks logically about it – most notable of which is the method by which the Initiative scouted the Heleus Cluster before departing. According to what Suvi says, the Geth had rebuilt a mass relay (something that even the far more advanced Protheans barely managed) so they could observe Dark Space, and the Initiative actually managed to somehow hack into the Geth Network (!) and use the mass relay's abilities to see the Heleus Cluster in real-time._

 _Now, a mass relay can_ _ **send**_ _things into FTL and receive only those things that are_ _ **already**_ _thrown at it through FTL, and_ _ **only**_ _if it achieves the as-of-yet not-understood connection with a relay pair. This means that the images from Andromeda couldn't have possibly been caught in real-time by this supposedly geth-rebuilt lonely mass relay because there was nothing in Andromeda to cast that light through FTL toward that repurposed mass relay in Geth space._

 _What I'm trying to say is that because too many Andromeda technologies, like this one, seem to have some very conflicting aspects compared to the originally postulated fictional technologies in ME1-2-3 and their effects, my story will NOT be using ANY reference to Andromeda technologies._

 _True, some of you will argue that I am already bending some of the technology rules postulated in ME1-2-3 for the sake of my story. I say – yes, I'm bending and expanding, but doing my best of not outright breaking, and I'm trying to be as accurate in the original frame as possible. Because of this, I DO NOT want to include any Andromeda technology or plot – at least at this moment. If I do, it will be after far more research, and any technology that might come from Andromeda Initiative (not Andromeda species themselves) might very well be significantly altered to suit this story's continuity, which is firmly based in the original ME1-2-3._


	23. Chapter 23 - Experiment Gone Wrong

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 ** _Thanks for all the nice reviews people! You're amazing!_** _Not only are you giving me reviews, but they are actually structured, long, and hit the point nicely! That's what any an author could hope for._

 _This chapter is, unfortunately, a bit shorter by necessity – it turns out that I had originally written an exceedingly long chapter which I felt would have been a bit too long for one sitting. So, I took a bit of time to make a decent split so as not to appear as if I had chopped it mid-scene._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 21.4.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes (to an extent), Economic themes (there are some), Intrigue (a bit o' that, too)…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 23 – Experiment Gone Wrong**

.

The Normandy dove into the atmosphere of the planet Binthu, leaving a fiery trail as it pierced through the upper layers at hypersonic speeds.

" _Atmospheric descent stable; systems green across the board,_ " Joker reported over the comms. " _IES systems report 99% entry emissions absorbed. We are stealth."_

"Mission status?" Jaina called through the comms from where she sat at the wheel of the second Mako.

" _700 kilometers to Target,"_ Joker responded. " _Speed constant at Mach 8. Time until drop: four minutes."_

"I'm pretty sure that even if they've seen a fiery trail of our descent, they'd have assumed it was a meteor piercing the atmo," Jaina commented to Marcus who sat in the other vehicle.

"Still, making an atmospheric entry like this, far away from the target, is a good practice for a ship like ours," he noted. "We can absorb all heat, but the re-entry blaze is visible."

"I'll send the memo to Hackett then," Jaina said. "He'll have to make sure it's applied in the manuals for the new ships." She looked up, noting the lack of any turbulences or sounds. "Though I must say, it's quite a smooth ride."

" _Aw, thanks for the compliment, Commander!"_ Joker called back through the comms merrily.

"I was referring to the ship," she replied dryly.

" _Well, it kinda comes with the package,"_ he pointed out with a grin evident in his voice. " _Now that I've had a chance to ride her, there's no way they're getting me off of this baby. I found my soul mate,"_ he finished dreamily.

"Why don't you watch the roads some more instead of dreaming," Garrus said tiredly.

" _Hey, it's the skies! I can make my own roads,_ " Joker retorted before his voice turned serious. " _Standby. Approaching drop point._ "

"Buckle up!" Jaina called out for the rest of the ground team, and the quick clicking of seat harnesses echoed through the inner compartments.

Both of the armored vehicles spun up their new hover drives, a low, powerful thrum rising up from their interiors. Under the large core's powerful mass effect fields, both vehicles rose up above the cargo hold's floor, their main thrusters priming for launch.

The pulsing orange lights at the sides of the cargo bay doors lighted up and the ramp quickly descended down, bringing with it the sound of roaring gales held at bay by the Normandy's forward air-deflecting barriers.

" _Shutting down the launch pad's inertial fields. Braking speed in… five, four, thee, two, one…_ "

The aerodynamic surfaces at the outside of the Normandy's hull extended, instantly breaking the ship's velocity as the two vehicles throttled up their hover system's acceleration pads. They shot out from the forward-facing cargo bay and throttled their thrusters as they began their controlled descent toward the ground.

The Normandy re-accelerated above them, surging up and away through the atmosphere. As the two vehicles descended the last hundred meters of altitude, their main hover systems kicked into full drive, halting their descent, and the vehicles surged forward in a low flight above Binthu's barren yellow-brown surface.

"Everything check, all systems in the green," Jaina called from the second Hover-Mako as she drove it parallel to Marcus's. "How's the system dealing with the new gun on your side?"

Marcus checked the vehicle's diagnostic layout. The new, significantly longer and more powerful gun now stood perching from the rear end of it and pointing forward, giving the vehicle a completely new silhouette.

"The system has immediately adjusted to the different distribution of weight," Marcus replied as he examined the readings. "No significant difference in the power drain."

"I suggest we test the main gun's operational capacity before we approach the target," Jaina said as she checked the surroundings on the radar. "This small valley seems to be well tucked-in between the hills, just as we assumed. The sound blast should be pretty limited."

"Alright," Marcus said. "Garrus, you have the honors."

"Roger that," Garrus replied and activated the new gun's controls. "All systems green. Starting off with a standard pea-sized round… firing test shot in three, two, one –"

A high-pitched whizz blasted through the air, and the entire Hover-Mako kicked hard from the mighty recoil, jumping up whole additional meter into the air before the flight control automatically settled it back down. The round struck the rocky hillside, blasting the rock into a burst of gravel.

"Whoa! That was a mighty kick there!" Jaina commented as she watched how the Mako reacted under the stress.

"It's alright, Commander," Tali spoke up. "We expected the first discharge would be like this. Just let the new V.I. we installed learn how much to compensate using the hover system.

"Preparing another round," Garrus said. "Same conditions."

The gun barked again, the round whizzing through the air and blasting the chunks of rock again, but this time, except for a slight tremor, the Mako remained steady.

"Now that's much better," Marcus said empathically, then shared a nod with the rest of the teammates in his Mako. "Jaina, fall back a bit, we're gonna try firing in lateral directions."

"Roger that," she said as her Hover-Mako slowed down a dozen meters behind Marcus's.

Garrus aimed and fired the gun both to the left and to the right a couple of times in five second intervals. The V.I. virtually instantly used the hover drive to compensate for the momentum and the torque that the eccentricity of the powerful gun's mounting was conveying to the main chassis without any issue. In the end, no matter the direction of firing, the Mako remained perfectly stable even as they kept driving at high velocities.

"I could get used to _this_ kind of stability," Garrus commented. "Nice work with those V.I. subroutines, Tali! I've never seen any V.I. stability assist adapt so quickly."

"How are our heat gages looking?" Marcus asked next.

"There is a powerful heat buildup," Tali said as she examined the recorded readings. "Even our new heat sinks cannot compensate it for too much. One shot every two-point-eight seconds – that's the fastest it can go and keep firing indefinitely."

"Really?" Kaidan queried bewilderedly. "Hadn't we rigged a system similar to the one on the Normandy's IES? The mass effect fields should have accelerated the heat siphoning and diffusion by a huge margin!"

"They did, and to a staggering degree, but this is an exceptionally powerful gun," Tali pointed out. "No standard armored vehicle could handle anything near its heat production. Frankly, even I'm surprised it's working this well. With the punch it packs, I'd have expected at least a four or five-second firing interval."

"How about short bursts for quick dispatches?" Garrus asked. "It's good having the reach, but I figure some flexibility might be good too."

"Hmm…" Tali hummed as she made some calculations. "It could do a three-round burst, but only once every seventeen seconds. Twelve, if we perhaps rig some kind of an emergency liquid coolant system to vent the heat."

"No. No way," Marcus stated firmly. "Designing adequate internal coolant pipelines increases complexity and complexity increases the chance of failure, and spraying a vapor coolant would eat away at the material over time – and that's not even accounting for all the coolant tanks we'd have to lug."

"Forget about any of that, guys!" Jaina called from the other end, ending their discussion. "The readings I'm having here state that that gun inflicts over forty mega-joules of impact energy – that's over six times the standard Mako's round. It's a one-shot-kill – and yet it can _keep_ firing. Quickly at that. Nobody has an IFV gun this powerful and efficient by a wide margin. Trying to improving it any more is only wasting our precious time."

The people in the vehicles looked amongst each other.

"Well, you've heard the lady," Marcus said, shrugging. "That's all the point we need." He then nodded at Garrus. "Tell me how are we when it comes to accuracy and the precision, though."

"It's overshooting the mark a by some point-three degrees, so the targeting system needs to be calibrated if we want to snipe out enemies, but the precision seems to be top notch; as one would expect of the gun of this length."

"Good," Marcus said. "Jaina, what our progress?"

"We're forty clicks out from the designated coordinates," she replied. "It'd take us some twenty minutes if we were in an ordinary Mako on a straight line."

"You want to test the new wings, huh?" he noticed, smiling. "Alright. Let's speed this up a notch."

"I'll wait for you at the finish line," she said smugly and punched the throttle, firing up the main thruster afterburners.

The Mako she piloted surged forward in a sudden burst of speed, the blue afterburner flame glaring brightly through the billows of brown dust it blasted up.

"Why, that lil…" he muttered as he punched the throttle of his own vehicle, blasting off after her.

The two vehicles surged across the open and barren landscape, their speed mounting to over three hundred kph within seconds. The Jaina's Hover Mako kept easily at the fore, the lack of the long and heavy gun giving her the weight and aerodynamics advantage.

Still, the mighty hover systems and large eezo cores pushed the combat vehicles hard, quickly peaking their velocities at five hundred kilometers per hour where the safeties limited any further acceleration this close to ground level.

" **Whuuuoow**!" Jaina whooped into the comm wildly as the vehicles charged across the dunes, leaping through the air off of dunes' edges like the flying fish jumping out across the waves.

"This vehicle is amazing! I love it!" she hollered with a big grin and a shine in her eyes. "And it has nothing with the fact that I'm beating your ass," she egged him on through the comms.

"Just you wait when you get the big-ass gun to weigh you down," he called.

"Now, now, boys are the ones that are _supposed_ to be carrying big-ass guns," she tutored. "You can leave us, girls, smooth and curvy." Her tone turned husky. "Or is this you insinuating about how you'd like me to have something extra other than my lady parts, hmm?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Nope; no insinuations of any kind. I prefer you just the way you are."

"Then shut up and bear the burden, buster!" she barked amusedly.

He chuckled more loudly. "How's the afterburner heat buildup look on your side?" he asked then, switching back to the matter at hand.

"Engine temperature stable at eighty degrees, heat sinks working at twenty percent capacity," she replied.

"That's pretty goddamn amazing!" Marcus said, then turned to look at Tali. "I think we may consider removing all speed limitations from now on. Whaddya think, Tali?" he said.

Tali's wide-eyed gaze just shot at him with horror, her making a small squeak in the back of her throat. Marcus frowned, looking down to notice that, despite wearing seatbelts, she was clenching the seat's armrests hard. Looking to her side, he saw Kaidan having a similar expression of contained horror on his face and a similar posture of his body.

The Hover Mako leaped off of the dune's edge once more, blasting off through the air at 500 kph before it landed with a light jolt.

"C…Commander," Kaidan squeezed as he noticed where Shepard was looking.

"Watch the road, maybe?" Garrus finished for him in a rush, equally perturbed.

Marcus cast a glance to the turian as well, noticing that his eyes were wide and mandibles tightly pressed against his cheeks in a visage of horror.

The Hover Mako leapt off of the dune's surface once more, making all three passengers brace tightly in mounting horror.

"Hmm… Honey?" he called calmly through the comms as he slowly returned his eyes on the road. "It would appear that I'm running a rising threat of a multiple power barf here. How's it look on your side?"

Jaina frown in bewilderment. "Seriously?" she exclaimed in surprise. "There's nothing wrong on this end of the –"

"J-Jaina!" Liara's gasp from behind interrupted her.

She quickly glanced to the rear seats, only to see Liara and Ashley clenching the armrests, looking extremely pale.

"A… a little less jumping around would be appreciated," Liara said, her eyes wide.

"What?" Wrex barked as he turned in his shotgun seat toward them, looking no worse for wear. "What the heck are you talking about? This ain't nothing! Have you ever driven a Tomkah across Tuchanka's ruins while being chased by a Thresher Maw and a flight of Harvesters that are dropping exploding Klinx on your head while an enemy clan is slugging heavy mass effect rounds your way? Now _that's_ the definition of bumpy! This thing? It's fun!"

Ashley pursed her mouth tightly, tucking her chin in and forcing her stomach down.

"O-kaaay," Jaina spoke slowly. "Marc, honey, why don't we rise a dozen meter's higher and keep it level?"

"Right after you," he said and the vehicles quickly adjusted their flight, preventing any further ramp jumps from the dunes' edges.

"Th-thank you, Commander," Ashley gasped out, reaching into her helmet to wipe the cold sweat off her brow.

"You're welcome, but we're talking about this when we get home," Jaina chided. "A little bit of bumping shouldn't rattle you this much."

"Not all of us were spec-ops supersoldiers trained for every vehicle of war, ma'am," Ashley pointed out. "Some of us were nothing more than planetside grunts."

"Or archaeologists, sitting in _unmoving_ dig sites."

"Or just sniper specialists trained to lie for hours in wait."

"Or biotic sentinels, trained for war on foot."

"Or flying their whole life in peacefully-floating ships with inertial dampeners turned on the whole time!" Tali cried out angrily.

There was a moment of silence.

"I volunteer to teach them how to drive; ha-ha!" Wrex's sinister voice through the comms.

A moment of shocked, disbelieving silence.

"We'll put it under consideration," Jaina said, diverting a bunch of shocked people's attention her way.

"Heads up," Marcus called, preventing any further outburst. "We're approaching the coordinates!"

"That rise over there," Jaina called out and both of the vehicles simultaneously turned their vehicles toward the location she'd indicated.

The two vehicles climbed the rise and glided low as they approached the top, descending down and positioning themselves behind a series of rocky outcroppings. In front of them, at some two kilometers of distance, a single artificial structure stood.

"Looks like a Type-2 outpost from here," Jaina said as she examined it through the powerful zoom. "Subterranean complex with one surface access, with three additional missile turrets on top of it."

"Could be a Type-4," Marcus pointed out. "Both gunners, scope the area and try and see if there's anything that resembles a secondary entrance within five hundred meters from the first one."

There were a few moments of silence.

"I think I got one," Garrus said. "Twelve-point-three degrees, twenty-two-hundred out."

"And I have another one," Wrex said. "Fourteen-point-one, twenty-one-hundred and twelve out."

Marcus whistled. "We've got ourselves a big sucker. Joker! How long until the Normandy can do an overpass?"

" _Nineteen minutes, Commander,_ " Joker replied. " _Do you want me to strike them with a pulsar?_ "

"No, we don't want to spook the hornet's nest if they're still here," Marcus replied. "Use only passive scanners and watch for heat and energy bleed signatures."

" _Aye-aye,_ " the man replied and ended the comm.

Marcus cast a quick look around his vehicle's compartment, noting that the passengers had already regained their color.

"You guys alright?" he called, receiving the nods from around.

"We're good here too," Jaina said after he checked out her own wards.

"Good," he said. "This Type-4 outpost might be only a couple of tunnels that link the exits, but if it's sprawling, then we'll need everyone on their top game. So, relax guys. Grab some water. We got eighteen minutes."

It was Liara who spoke up then: "Um… can somebody please explain to the clueless asari what does a Type-4 mean?" she asked with an innocent tone.

Marcus and Jaina both simultaneously opened their mouths to formulate a response when an audible sigh echoed through the comm.

"Fiiine," Ashley declared, obviously trying to make it sound like an exaggerated exasperation; "I will play the big sister and explain… even though you're… like… as old as my great-grandma, but whatever…"

"Ah-hah," Liara drawled out with a mock-irk smile on her face, and a few good-natured chuckles echoed through the comm.

"Aaaanywaaay," Ashley continued. "Alliance separates outposts into five types. Type-1 are surface structures – anything ranging from a single shack to a structured cluster of prefabs. Type-2 are underground and don't house more than a few dozen people. Type-3 are a mix of the two. Type-4, however, are actually large, sprawling underground bases that have more than one entrance. This is one of those. This one has three entrances, and by all accounts, it should mean it's _a big one_."

"And the Type-5?" Tali asked.

"A military type of outpost," Ashley replied. "Those employ everything from subterranean generators, multiple exits, and a bunch of surface structures."

"And anything larger than that?" Liara queried.

"Well, then you're talking about full-fledged colonies and military bases," Ashley replied.

"I see," Liara said interestedly as she seemed to be mulling over and storing the information in her mind.

They waited for some more minutes until the Normandy passed overhead on its orbital trajectory, and Joker called down:

" _Commander, we're picking up some_ _ **seriously**_ _wacked readings from that base down there_."

"I'm listening," Marcus replied evenly.

" _Well, for one, the base isn't as large as it seems to be by the positioning of its exits. It is only some twenty-five hundred square meters including hallways._ "

"How accurate is that?" Jaina asked.

" _Very. We're detecting their generators – they're operating at full capacity and all of those internal energy systems are producing induction fields and heat. The entire base is lighted up like a Christmas tree!"_

"Not terribly low-key of Cerberus," Marcus noted with a frown.

" _It gets stranger than that_ ," Joker said. " _The life support system should be completely closed, but the emergency vents show that carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is cycled_ _ **into**_ _the base._ "

There was silence as both Marcus and Jaina mulled the implications of this discovery with both of their brows knitted together.

"Any life signs?" Marcus asked.

" _The passive spectrometry shows evidence of organic compounds at the vents, but they are not what you usually see in human outposts. Ensign Kozlova believes we're dealing with an alien infestation in there."_

"Shouldn't Binthu be uninhabited by higher-form organisms?" Jaina demanded in surprise.

" _That's a negative on survey accuracy, ma'am,_ " Navigator Pressly called from above. " _Binthu was charted, but never combed by true scientific teams,_ " he said. " _It is feasible that some periodic organism might have spent the time sleeping underground._ "

" _Yeah, like the first Riddick movie, Pitch Black!_ " Joker exclaimed eagerly.

Marcus sighed. "Fucking great," he muttered.

" _Should I hit it with the Pulsar?"_ Joker called.

"Do it," Marcus said without preamble.

The Normandy's mighty sensor suite blasted a dark energy FTL pulse, illuminating the entire base.

" _Commander, there's definitely something wrong going on down there,_ " Joker reported a minute later. " _We are detecting biomass inside the compound. There are, however, four shuttles behind a hidden shuttle bay entrance, and they all seem to be intact._ "

"Great," Marcus muttered. "Alright, everyone – breather helmets on! We're going in. Maximum level of alertness. If something seems too off, we back out."

Both he and Jaina revved up the drives of their Hover-Makos and accelerated toward the base entrance.

"Are those turrets tracking us, or am I imagining things?" Wrex asked suddenly.

Marcus sent a broadband scan along with visual tracking and spoke after a moment.

"No, you're not," he said somberly.

"They aren't firing," Jaina added. "We're well within their range."

"Stay alert, and prepare for evasive actions if necessary," Marcus reasserted.

Both of the Makos slowed down as they approached the base entrance, with all three of the turrets still tracking them.

"Tali, take the wheel," Marcus directed her, and they swapped places. "I'm heading out. If something happens, gun it. I'll make sure to jump in or on – or whatever's possible."

"Understood, Commander," the young quarian replied tensely.

The internal atmosphere equalized with the external, and Marcus popped the hatch carefully, slowly stepping out of the Mako, keeping his weapon in hands.

One of the turrets turned his way, and his HUD pinged with a LADAR scan originating from the turret. Three seconds later, all three turrets disengaged their tracking, and reset themselves into their default upturned angle of forty-five degrees, tracking the skies.

"That's… good," Jaina commented dubiously.

Marcus just nodded, then heard a thump behind him. Wrex had joined him, Devastator machinegun in hand, both of them scanning the compound entrance.

Suddenly, the light indicator of the entrance lock switched from red to green, and the main entrance doorway opened widely, making both Marcus and Wrex, and both of the Mako's guns aim at it. A moment later, a single humanoid figure began to slowly emerge from the stairwell.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Ashley exclaimed.

"What's a _Thorian creeper_ doing on _this_ planet?" Liara followed up right after.

In front of them was, clearly as day, one of Thorian's creepers, the one whose physique resembled the long-extinct Protheans. Its green plant body was interspersed with small turquoise-blue bulbs, and its four eyes glowed the same color. The creeper raised its hand and made a beckoning motion as it turned and descended the ramp.

"Come on," Marcus made a general call as he lowered his gun slightly. "We're going after it."

Both of the Makos popped their hatches open, and the teammates shuffled out one by one, and closed in and descended down the outpost entrance in short order. As they all entered, the entrance doors closed, and the atmosphere started filtering out the toxic chlorine. But not the carbon dioxide.

Marcus looked at the creeper, whose neck began to shift and reshape, and a set of vocal organs developed. It rumbled with a slow, inhuman, but quite understandable voice:

"Do not remove your armor, Commander Shepard," it said. "This atmosphere is too toxic for you."

"Am I speaking with Thorian from Feros directly?" Marcus asked.

"Yes," the creeper replied. "Follow this creeper."

With that, it turned and went toward an elevator that would descend them down. Wrex looked at Marcus.

"If they've changed their mind about being friendly and turn us into compost, I'm blaming you," he declared, then moved to follow the creeper.

Marcus shared an amused look with Jaina before they too followed, leading the rest of their team down the very much functional elevator into the bowels of the base.

The creeper led them through the hallways of the base that was obviously claimed by Thorian's plant form. Leafy, moss-covered vines were spreading and sprawling across the walls. The air was humid, hot, and the light settings seemed to be set brighter than what would be normal. Several of the other Thorian creepers were there as well. They carried guns, human-built guns, just like many of their brethren did on Feros when they had captured geth rifles.

The creeper led them to what appeared to be one central operations room where there was no plant life whatsoever, the air dry and cool, and all the computers that were there being fully operational and at work.

The Thorian stopped, turning to them as it spoke:

"Before you came to Feros, some of these creepers were taken and… transported… here by humans you call ExoGeni. I didn't know where this place was, but the humans that were here did not belong to ExoGeni. I have heard a lot of what they spoke of but didn't understand much at the time. Once we had made our Deal on Feros, however, I began to understand much more. I began to understand many more things.

"These humans called themselves Cerberus. They wanted to perform… examinations… on these creepers. They wanted to use my creepers as their own weapons. They wanted to use my creepers to find a way to control me, as well. I did not want to allow that. I am _me_ , and I do not allow to be controlled. Cerberus was… complacent. They… assumed… that all creepers were mindless plants. So, I tricked them at a… crucial… moment and destroyed all of their bodies. Their lair is mine now."

Marcus and Jaina shared a look.

"Where are all the bodies?" she asked.

"They are being decomposed at the greatest chamber – the… warehouse," Thorian replied. "Their flesh will provide nutrients for the new seedling that will one day become another me."

"Y-you're procreating!" Liara realized in utter amazement.

"Holy fuck," Ashley muttered as she shared a look with Kaidan.

"This planet isn't exactly hospitable to life," Garrus pointed out. "Other than carbon dioxide, it has little else that plants can use."

"You, soldiers, rarely know what plants use," Thorian said. "Or what they need. I need light, minerals, water, and to breathe. You may not see it, but this planet has all I need. I have found a way to tap water, minerals, air, and light. My seedling will live and grow. And, after many long cycles, it will fertilize this planet in the whole."

"Huh… that is a… pretty goddamn awesome thing to hear, actually," Marcus said, sharing a look with Jaina.

"Slightly intimidating, when you think on it, but… yeah," Jaina admitted. "It is pretty fucking awesome!"

Marcus turned to look at the creeper once more. "We came here searching for the Cerberus agents. We believe they are hurting a lot of people for their own causes. We wanted to stop them. But this cell is only one of many. We wanted to find clues of the whereabouts of others.

Thorian rumbled plant-likely and pointed to computer consoles.

"The… computer… holds a lot. I could use some. But not all."

"Wait just one damn minute!" Wrex spoke up gruffly, raising his one hand. "Where, in the name of Kalros and all that crushes and kills, had you learned how to use a goddamn computer?!"

"That's right!" Ashley spoke up in surprise, pointing a finger at it accusingly. "You were the one that tracked us with those turrets back on the surface using computers, didn't you! How could you possibly know how to do that?"

"Shiala teaches me a lot," Thorian replied nonplussed. "Zhu's Hope colonists teach me a lot. Other asari, turian, and salarian envoys that came teach me a lot every day as well – whether that's their intention or not."

"Well, I'll be damned," Jaina murmured in astonishment, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Does anyone else know that you're on this planet?" Marcus asked.

"It was in my… interest… to keep my presence here to myself," Thorian replied. "The Cerberus does not realize what I am doing here. They think that my creepers will expire here given enough time. I have seen it on their computers. In their… communications. But, I haven't been able to access everything. A lot of it is… encrypted."

"Will you let us take it?" Marcus asked then.

"Yes," Thorian replied. "But leave a… copy. I will learn eventually how to… access it. I will enjoy the challenge."

Marcus nodded, and then turned to Tali, and motioned her toward the console. The young quarian slowly stepped behind him, watching Thorian with an equal dose of amazement and disconcert, before she set down to cracking the files.

"Keelah, they'll never gonna believe this back on the Fleet."

* * *

 _._

 _Three hours later, Normandy's comm room…_

"So, what's so important about Columbia system if the Cerberus chose it as their base?" Kaidan wondered as they all watched the system's tactical overlay on the holographic projector.

"Nothing," Marcus replied as he too observed the system with a frown. "And that's why it is perfect."

"It is far away from the cluster's mass relay, and far away from any hubs or even outposts," Jaina said. "A perfect tucked-away spot for the main base of a shadow organization's cell where they can perform its operations without being detected."

"The Skillian Verge is riddled with such star clusters and systems," Wrex said slowly. "Only a handful of the Verge systems are colonized by anyone. Most of it is just a bunch of barren rocks!"

"True," Marcus said. "Which means that if Cerberus is going to operate anywhere, it is going to be right here, throughout this entire quadrant of the Galaxy."

"Makes sense, assuming they're as smart as we think they are," Garrus agreed. "Though, by now, it is pretty much obvious we're dealing with something major here. This is bigger than a mere rogue team or branch of Alliance Secret Service."

"I expect that whatever we find on Nepheron will be only a small piece of the puzzle, encrypted, and very likely booby-trapped," Jaina said.

"And we'll operate under those assumptions," Marcus said, then pressed the comm button. "Pressly, give me an update on our progress."

" _Twenty hours out, Commander,_ " Pressly replied. " _No change in parameters._ "

"Thanks, Pressly," Jaina said, then turned to the rest of them. "Assuming an eight-hour nighttime rest, two hours of meal time and two hours of R&R, that leaves us with six or seven hours of effective time. Tali, what's your assessment on the progress of our Mako upgrades?"

"That depends on what you'd want to be done in that time," Tali said. "It might be true that we have four technically savvy people in our team, but even we can only work so fast."

"We shouldn't push it," Marcus said, sharing a consulting look with Jaina. "The first Hover-Mako has the new and improved main gun, and the second one has the hover system, but installing any further structural upgrades on any one of them is out of the question in this short a timeframe."

Tali nodded. "By my estimates, the main gun for the second Mako will take at least six hours to manufacture and install, even with the experience from installing the gun on the first Mako. Might be doable if we push it, but…" she trailed off with a discouraging shake of her head.

"What about the "pincer" turrets?" Kaidan queried.

"Forget about those," Marcus stated firmly. "The installation of the main gun was easy – the turret is positioned all the way on the rear of the vehicle, so the armor protection can be simplified. The pincer turrets are mounted near the front, where it is by default much more exposed to enemy fire. We'll need a lot of careful math to set those turrets properly, so we'll save those for later. Right now, I think it would be for the best if we were to boost both of the vehicles' kinetic barriers."

"That will be easy," Tali said. "All we'll have to do is add additional emitters and boost the flow from the new Martellix core. Even the standard emitters can endure twice the mass effect flow on their own."

"And I will calibrate the new gun," Garrus added his two cents. "With as strong recoil as it has, I'd say we can't go without that."

"True," Marcus admitted. "Alright. We'll reconvene in the cargo hold in thirty minutes. Dismissed."

...

* * *

...

 ** _SOME DECISIONS_**

 _In the previous reader address, I questioned Andromeda's iffy Codex explanations and technology aspects because of how its existence might affect some of the technology considerations, which I, as you've noticed, like to keep prominent in my story. I decided to play the game a bit more before deciding. These days, though, I've been playing it, thinking, and had some thoughts about it..._

 _I was thinking that the Codex has always been a focal source of Mass Effect information and all of the fanfictions –_ _ **the best**_ _of the fanfictions, in fact – had used the Codex information as a baseline by which they have made their own story, or even altered or adjusted its lore._

 _With that in mind, I have used the information provided through the Original Codex as well (as several canon in-game sources) to serve as a baseline for the technological explanations that are used in my story. Using "what is allowed" by mass effect's fictional properties explained in the Codex, I strive to imagine and implement new technologies into my story – something I feel would be essential (but also plausible to have developed) for when the fight against the Reapers finally comes._

 _But, playing Andromeda and reading its Codex, I came to realize that Andromeda has butchered and then frankensteined much of what Mass Effect had originally created and explained through its Codex, all for the sake of satisfying the needs of their pathetically disappointing story, setting, and characters. I had found that most, if not all, of the so-called technological breakthroughs that the Initiative has done for the sake of their colonization effort, while_ _ **somewhat**_ _plausible, are very poorly implemented from an engineering standpoint (unlike the tech of ME1-2-3 – most likely reason being because Casey Hudson, who directed the Originals was a mechanical engineer) and many plausible technologies that do appear are obviously far beyond the scope of what was possible back in the days before 2185. Hell, some of the technologies of the Initiative weren't around until the onset of the Reaper War! The Codex tries to talk its way out of this conundrum by giving various far-fetched explanations, but it's too obvious to ME veterans that it's just a sloppy job._

 _Therefore, I had decided to completely ignore everything that the Andromeda Codex has stated – all of the so-called Initiative innovations that came from the Milky Way and all of the advanced technologies that they had inexplicably appropriated. Most of the technological explanations that the Andromeda has made, **I will ignore** , because I don't feel they're good enough – not like the Original Codex. They will never appear in any of my stories, nor will they influence the technological ideas for some future Systems Alliance military gear that I might conceive._

 _Finally, let me just say this: Andromeda has a pretty damn nice and dynamic combat gameplay. I like it a lot, actually! It is the best part of the game! Characters, setting, story, and colonists' incompetence – not so much (and that's an understatement). I hope that someone on this site writes a story called "Andromeda: how it should have been" where colonists don't behave like entitled idiots who went on a 600-year long journey only expecting to get everything on a silver platter the moment they got there._

 _Oh! And Nomad ND1 is not that bad at all. Except that the M-35 Mako beats hands down it in almost everything except top speed, and its defenses are barely tougher than Hammerhead's. But hey, at least the Nomad looks pretty! And it burns pretty too when it passes by a kett entrenchment._

 ** _Cheers, and see ya soon!_**


	24. Chapter 24 - Into The Beast's Lair

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _This is me giving excuses about delaying this chapter for one whole month: basically, I have no idea how it came to that._

 _Actually, scratch that – yes, I do know exactly why it came to the delay. This chapter required a big re-write. Originally, I was about to release it a week after the previous chapter, but when I got to edit and polish it, I noticed there were several giant issues that I didn't want my story to have. Basically, it was one big giant flaw that would have made the whole story seem more bland and unsatisfactory to me, and it would have affected several other chapters. That needed to be rectified. And I didn't want to post this chapter until I had reworked the rest of the oncoming storyline details to a sufficient degree. I know you'd have liked a speedy post, but 'quality beats speed' had always been my credo. That's one of the reasons why this chapter is extra long._

 _On another note…_

 _200k words! Wow. What a milestone! It has always been my desire to leave my mark by writing a big story on this site, and this number… it kinda feels good, you know? It feels even better to know that you guys like it. The reviews, the favorites, the follows – it makes me really feel good to see them in such number. It gives me the motivation to create more, to keep up with it. So, thanks, again guys! I hope you remain as generous with your reviews and support in the future._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 21.5.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes (to an extent), Economic themes (there are some), Intrigue (a bit o' that, too)…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 24 – Into The Beast's Lair**

.

 _22 hours after Binthu, in orbit above Nepheron_

 _..._

Marcus and Jaina stood together on the command platform in the CIC in full combat gear, observing the tactical display.

"What's the verdict?" Jaina demanded from the crewman.

"There's definite presence down there, ma'am," the sensors operator replied. "Looks like a larger-than-average Type-3 outpost with average-to-low levels of apparent activity. The movements we've seen so far are comparable to the standard Alliance base procedures, but it definitely isn't an Alliance compound."

"Makes sense," she said as she manipulated the tactical overlay. She looked to Marcus over her shoulder. "If Cerberus worked with the Alliance in the past, it stands to assume they'd have assimilated many of their procedures."

"No indications of mobilization or scrambling to flee…" Marcus noticed.

"That confirms this base isn't the part of the same cell as the one we've been chasing," Jaina said. "It wasn't among the data Kahoku's men found on Armistan Banes. They don't know they're compromised yet!"

"What about those few orbital satellites we've detected on our approach?" he demanded from the crewman.

"None of their scanners are turned toward the planet, sir," the operator reported. "They're only scanning the outer space."

He nodded. "They're relying on detecting any incoming ships rather than watching their own surroundings," he commented.

"And it would have worked for any normal ship other than Normandy," Jaina agreed. "We have shot at this!"

He nodded, his grim, icy gaze riveted to the display. "Stealth insertion M.O. We breech the atmo at about 1000 clicks to remove us from their visual, then approach at low flight to 50 clicks and launch the assault vehicles."

She zoomed out to the planet view, panning around the area until she found the acceptable surface features.

"This descent approach is the best," she said, highlighting the trajectory and surface terrain. "The high rises give us cover almost all the way. We eject the vehicles here," she tapped the point, highlighting it. "The final couple of clicks are mostly an open ground with only a little cover, but with how much the Makos are improved, I say we can strike them with impunity in a direct, storming assault."

He nodded. "We approach fast," he said motioning with his fingers. "We go in low; we go in supersonic. With the afterburners, the few clicks can be covered in fifteen seconds."

"And we come head-on to these two AA guns, taking them out in a strafing run," she said. "Then, the Normandy swoops in, drops the Triton mechs, and continues to provide air superiority."

"But we'll need to jam everything that goes in or out of the planet the moment the first round is fired," he added.

"Good for start," she gave her assent, then zoomed in to the main building. "Once the outside threat has been neutralized, the Normandy sweeps the central hub with the pulsar scan, giving us the internal layout." She tapped the entrance. "We proceed through the main entrance and fight through the inner defenses until the main hub is cleared."

"And, once we're done, the cleanup of the remainder of the base will be a cakewalk," he finished.

"Right," she said.

"Right," he said.

For a few moments, they didn't move or utter a word, merely observing the aerial view and the layout of the enemy base.

She shook her head. "We're doing this the whole wrong."

"Yeah," he agreed.

"We're treating this as a 'Clear the Nest' scenario, but that's not it, is it?" she said, her tone troubled. "This is 'Secure the Hostages' situation."

He nodded. "The moment the first round is fired, they're gonna destroy all intel they possess in that base, and we're screwed."

"We need an infiltration," she finished, giving him a somber look.

Marcus turned his steel blue gaze back to the base display, a grim frown cresting his forehead as he spent a few moments scrutinizing the view before him.

He tapped the intercom.

"This is Shepard," his voice echoed throughout the ship. "All ground forces to the briefing room – now."

With a military-like efficiency that was slowly becoming their second nature, all six of the specialists quickly found their way to the briefing room, followed closely by Sergeant Miller and his marine squad.

The large group of people quickly filed into the room where Marcus and Jaina already waited for them and arranged themselves around the room's outer walls, leaving the center stage clear for the two Commanders.

At the room's center, a holographic projection was activated, showing the Cerberus base and its surrounding areas in 3D.

"This is the target," Jaina started, slowly walking around the large projection, the base's structure highlighting at her speech. "From the outside, it looks like a standard Alliance Type-3 outpost a bit on the large side. It's a compound of several structures and prefabs, all mutually interconnected through the underground tunnels. Three gates are apparent – here, here, and here – all three with guardhouses. A large landing pad with a control tower, here, and an adjacent hangar bay. This large structure is most likely the command center.

"So far, our passive observations have detected at least two platoons of enemy combatants, armored vehicles _here_ , as well as these defensive turret emplacements. The visuals and thermals were very thorough on the latter and we're pretty sure there will be no additional hidden turrets, but we're not excluding the possibility of there being some hidden surprises that the passive scans cannot detect."

"What about using the actives once the battle starts?" Sergeant Miller asked in his raspy, Aussie-accented voice.

"Once the battle starts, all means are a go," Marcus said, "but this battle isn't the standard 'Clear the Nest' scenario."

"Our main goal is any and all information that lies inside this base – most likely in this structure," Jaina said, highlighting the building in question, "which we assume is the command center. However, judging from what we've seen of Cerberus in the previous bases we've encountered, it can be entirely guaranteed that they are going to initiate a full purge of all data terminals they have the moment the battle starts. And losing this data would be considered a mission failure."

"So – a hostage situation," Garrus said.

"Precisely," Marcus confirmed. "The data is held hostage and at gunpoint. We need to secure it. And storming the base would be a big 'No'."

"Not necessarily," Tali chirped. "Data is exceptionally hard to destroy from standard quantum computers. They're designed to retain the residual charge that denotes data, and you can't just put a hammer to it or send an EMP. To truly wipe it, they need to actually rewrite the true data with junk data, and that takes dozens of minutes."

"Which means that we might have a shot at a head-on strike," Wrex said. "None of those Cerberus's vehicles or turrets can stand up to the newly-improved Makos nor the Normandy's strafing run. The outside opposition could be cleared in seconds!"

"That's only assuming they exit the compound," Marcus countered. "Which I guarantee they won't do if they see an overwhelming attack. Cerberus isn't stupid; not with the efficiency we've seen of their operations so far. They'll bunker down and fight through the hallways – something which can last for days if the conditions are right – while their support personnel stages a data wipe and/or an evacuation."

"Escape via shuttle craft?" Miller asked. "Bugger me if they don't have at least four shuttles behind those large hangar doors."

"And every shred of common sense would agree that that's exactly what's the best approach in their situation," Jaina said. "Which is why a head-on assault is a no-go. This mission is going to be a covert infiltration."

"Ready and able, ma'am," Miller declared with his men nodding readily at his sides.

"Negative," Jaina said, shaking her head. "We need you and your men at the Tritons as a strike team _after_ the infiltration has been successful."

"Then who's supposed to be the infiltration team?" Wrex queried. "I'm not exactly the one to skulk around."

"And you won't be," Jaina said. "The infiltrator is going to be me."

"You?" Liara parroted.

"I hold the highest experience as a tactical infiltrator out of everyone present," Jaina declared. "Which is why I am going to be the one to lead this entire operation inside and out. Pay attention and do exactly as I say when I say it, and we just might get through this mission with all of our objectives secure. Understood?"

Murmurs of affirmation spread across the present crowd.

"Good," Jaina said, returning her eyes back to the base layout before them. "Now, the first order of business is the retrieval of data. Even if I successfully infiltrate the base, that won't mean a thing if we can't retrieve what we came here for. Tali, this is where you come in. Are you familiar with DPRST systems for covert remote signal transfers?"

"Yes, I have the micro-components on me right now," Tali said, "but the comm protocols are not Alliance standard, Commander; they're quarian."

"Exactly what I was hoping for," Jaina pointed out. "Cerberus knows the Alliance protocols, which means that they'll have the systems specifically designed to detect Alliance's covert signals. Quarian, on the other hand, are almost a complete unknown to anyone outside the Flotilla; they play exactly into our hand. You are going to install the hardware add-ons to both of our omni-tools and then use me as a mobile node to hack the systems once I'm inside the base."

"It'll be done," Tali declared.

"Good. Now. With the most important aspect of the mission taken care of, we're getting to the infiltration itself," Jaina said, then widened the field of view of the projection, zooming far away. "The Normandy will pierce the atmo some 1000 clicks east of the base and will deploy the IFVs carrying the specialist team once we approach within 50 clicks of the base. The two vehicles will proceed to this point. Scorpion-1 will stay there, while the Mako-2 will continue to this point, where it will deposit me before it returns to join the Scorpion-1, from where I will advance down this small gully that leads straight toward the base."

"Risky," Garrus said. "If I built a base there, I'd have made sure that that gully is watched or booby trapped."

"True, but the passive scans didn't detect any thermals to indicate guards or automated defenses guarding that approach," she said. "It is likely that Cerberus is relying on detecting the incoming ships in space first."

Garrus hummed, nodding. "A much more practical means of defense, to be sure," he admitted. "Can't be too careful, though. If I was as paranoid as Cerberus appears to be, I'd place some landmines on any blind side approach I might have."

"That's why I have the narrow-band scanner," she said. "Standard infiltrator gear. It'll detect any nasty surprises or alarm triggers on my way."

"How will you get in?" Kaidan questioned as he looked over the base's perimeter.

"Here," she said, highlighting the location and zooming in to show a real-image render. "A secondary security station."

Almost everyone frowned at what they were seeing.

"Are that security station's doors and windows wide open to the outside environment?" Ashley said incredulously. "What's going on?"

"Nepheron's atmosphere has similar temperature and air pressure to that of Earth," Marcus said. "It's only lacking oxygen."

"Huh, I see what's going on!" Ash exclaimed in understanding.

"Right, the Alliance does that in its own field outposts as well," Kaidan agreed, explaining it to the alien crew. "In the cases of this kind of atmosphere, it's feasible and actually more expedient to use low-density mass effect barriers to only keep the interior atmosphere from mixing with the one outside. The open windows become gun ports, instantly turning it into a bunker."

"Which is our ticket in," Jaina said to everyone. "Despite keeping the planet's atmo out, the security station's interior is connected to the main base with life support ducts. That is where I get in. Using the standard tactical cloak, I'll slip past the guards and enter the interior of the base."

"Aren't building's air ducts built from tin?" Tali asked. "Everyone's gonna hear you."

"No, those ducts are deeper in. These ones need to endure differing environment pressures and are far sturdier," Kaidan said.

"What about its internal layout?" Garrus asked.

"The structures of that base look every bit the standard military outpost prefabs," Jaina said. "Just like the ones the Alliance uses. That means I can't get lost inside. It'll only take time to discover which room houses the main server."

"What happens if they detect the hack?" Liara asked. "Bases like these surely come with at least some protection."

"That's where Tali comes into play," Jaina said, looking at the quarian girl. "This is going to be a high-pressure moment. You're gonna have to work fast via my omni-tool's node in order to overtake their purging protocols."

"It can be done," Tali said, then trailed off. "Or… huh!"

"You have something better in mind?" Jaina prompted her.

"Y… yes, actually, I do!" Tali exclaimed animatedly. "We could trick them and let them begin the data wipe!"

The rest of the people looked amongst each other in apparent confusion.

"How does that get us what we need?" Jaina asked nonplussed.

"Using this!" Tali said as she began rummaging through her new suit's numerous pockets. "I have it somewhere… uhm… ah! Here it is!"

Jaina took the device that was the size of a large coin.

"An OSD?" She asked.

"More than that," Tali spoke animatedly. "Remember those Prothean OSDs we've recovered from Liara's apartment?"

"The ones I gave you to try and figure them out?" Marcus said.

"And I did!" Tali said excitedly. "Those Prothean OSDs were more than OSDs; they had Prothean processors on them. I had managed to remove a processor unit from one of the OSDs and rigged it onto a standard OSD! The Prothean OSD processors had an adaptive matrix that mimics the surrounding electric impulses and memorizes them. The perfect data transference device – they record it as quickly as the terminal's processor can read the data! They are not compatible with how our computers work, but they can _mimic_. And that means that they pick up _every_ shred of electric quantum data that happens to be firing off in the surrounding computer system and transfer it onto themselves – everything that is being done on the computer while they are slotted into the port!"

"Won't Cerberus security software pick up an OSD that is slotted into the port?" Marcus asked.

"No, because there won't be any standard linkup established," Tali said. "This rigged OSD is essentially a dead OSD drive as far as the operating system is concerned! But by being slotted in, it will be hooked onto the server's power and circuitry nonetheless. The Prothean mimicking matrix will simply start to record everything that's going on."

"And if Cerberus wipes the data?" Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The wiped data needs to be mapped in order to be wiped," Tali said slowly, bearing tones of great excitement. "If it is being mapped, then the Prothean chip will detect the electric impulses and mimic everything onto itself!"

"And with it being rigged onto today's standard OSD format…" Jaina picked up.

"It can write everything down onto it for us to read later," Marcus finished, a smile breaking in the corner of his lips.

"That's damn ingenious!" Garrus exclaimed. "How come nobody ever thought about using Prothean OSDs in this way?"

"The archeological community is more worried about preserving than actually figuring it out," Liara said dryly.

"Their loss," Marcus said. "Assuming this works, perhaps we should put 'Search for more Prothean Data Disks throughout the Traverse' on our bucket list?" he asked Jaina.

"Definitely," she said, smirking, then turned to Tali. "So, all I have to do is slot this little sucker into one of the main server's ports and wait for them to start wiping the data?"

"Exactly!" Tali exclaimed. "The disk's adaptive mimicking matrix will do everything on its own!"

"So, that just leaves the matter of us actually _assaulting_ the compound from the outside in order to spook them into trying to wipe out all the data, which plays them right into our hands!" Wrex declared thunderously. "I like it!"

"How do you want to perform the assault?" Garrus queried as his tactical mind began shifting across the potential battlefield. "A direct head-on, or spooking them from the distance?"

"It needs to be a head-on," Marcus said, reaching out and pointing to the hangar bay with two fingers. "Once we strike, all of the potential VIPs are going to be promptly evacuated; capturing them would be as much of a victory as securing the data, which means that we cannot loiter at range and need to storm the compound in order to make them bunker in."

"It will be downright hell to achieve situational awareness, though," Garrus commented. "Those structures are strategically positioned to provide visual cover for the defenders. We won't be able to see their movements or flanking maneuvers."

Jaina chuckled. "Hadn't you paid attention Garrus?" she asked. "I said at the beginning of the briefing that _**I**_ am going to be the one to lead this entire operation inside and out."

At the turian's confused expression, she pointed at the control tower that overlooked the hangar bay and the large landing pad.

"After I've planted the OSD, I'll proceed to the top of the control tower," she said. "From there, I am going to provide the complete tactical support and leadership for your advance. Listen to what I say, when I say it, and this mission will be a success."

Garrus, stood straighter, his mandibles tight against his jaw and nodded firmly in understanding.

"Good." Jaina acknowledged. "Once the battle starts, it will be pretty simple. The Scorpion and the Hover-Mako will jump out from their hidey hole and take out the AA-Towers, then proceed into the base proper. The Normandy will swoop in, drop Miller and his team with the Triton mechs. The specialists will leave the vehicles and provide support. Garrus – your task is two-fold: take the high ground that overlooks both the base's perimeter and the control tower where I'm at. You will provide cover for me should I need it."

"Understood."

"Marcus, Wrex, and Liara," Jaina continued. "You three are the frontline artillery. All three of you possess biotics and have an extreme potential to pierce their lines while absorbing fire." She looked at Liara. "Think you can handle it?"

"It will be done, Jaina," Liara declared firmly.

"Good. Your job is to flank the enemy while the Tritons and our IFVs keep them busy."

"Understood," Marcus said.

"Finally, the rest of the crew will support the vehicles – keep them alive and out of enemy heavies' crosshairs. That's Tali and Kaidan supported by the four more Miller's men while Ash and one additional soldier will man the IFVs."

"What about the Normandy, ma'am?" Ashley asked.

"As soon as the AA turrets are down, Joker will direct the ship down and begin strafing runs," Jaina said. "Once that happens, the outside battle will be pretty much done. What remains is to clear the base's interior. But that will be subject to the situation and will need to be addressed once the upper base is secure. Questions?"

People shook their heads silently.

Jaina shared a silent look with Marcus, who nodded and tapped the comms.

"Pressly, sound general quarters!"

" _General quarters – aye, sir!_ " Pressley responded.

"Ground team to the cargo bay," Marcus ordered, leading the way out of the comm room as the deep, repetitive thrumming of the general quarters claxons filled the air.

* * *

.

Ten minutes later, the Normandy was piercing the lower levels of the planet's troposphere on the final approach to the hover tank drop. All teams were mounted and ready and Jaina was giving final instructions.

"I want radio silence the moment the Scorpion and the Hover-Mako are dropped," she said into the comm from where she sat in the vehicle. "Joker, you are to monitor our actions. As soon as we engage the base, you are to engage the jamming field. The moment the AA towers are destroyed, deploy the Tritons and start performing air superiority maneuvers."

" _Understood, Commander,_ " Joker replied. " _Disengaging inertial fields at the vehicle launch ramp. Cargo bay ramp opening… Combat drop in… five, four, three, two, one…_ "

The Normandy extended its aero-brakes, decelerating, and the two hover vehicles shot out of the cargo bay like bolts under the pull of inertia. The main thrusters of the vehicles instantly blasted off in perfect synch, launching the vehicles into high velocities.

Under the powerful drive of the hover system and the afterburners, the vessels quickly achieved supersonic speeds, quickly covering the barren landscape beneath them.

"Marcus, I am detecting a bit of turbulence at these speeds, but the fly-by-wire is compensating," Jaina said. "How's it look on your end?"

"About the same," he replied. "We can maintain this speed without problems."

"Still, avoid sharp maneuvers," she cautioned. "These vehicles are far from aerodynamically stable."

"Understood," he said, then: "Garrus, how's the tactical overlay looking on the targeting systems?"

"Looking seamless," the turian replied. "I already have the base's defenses marked on my targeting. Distance: 14.2 clicks and closing."

The two vehicles quickly covered the ground, weaving between the hilly ridges as they approached the base's perimeter.

"Approaching nav point one," Kaidan spoke up. "Shutting down main thrusters; proceeding only on hoverdrive."

The two vehicle's thrusters cut off and their velocity dropped, any dust that they were raising with their passing instantly dropping off to nothing more than minuscule puffs as the main hoverdrive took over.

"Nav point two," Kaidan spoke and the two vehicles instantly separated.

The Scorpion, the vehicle that sported the new, long main cannon, went straight toward the area from which they would later storm the base. The Hover-Mako that carried Jaina went sideways toward a ravine.

They weaved through the canyon that kept narrowing down and becoming shallower until they left the hills behind them and the ravine began tapering off.

"That's far enough," Jaina said and the vehicle drew to a halt. "Alright boys and girls, from this moment on, until I'm on that tower, the radio silence is active."

She popped the hatch, quickly hopping out and dropping lithely on the ground next to the vehicle. She walked out, giving a circling hand signal to Kaidan, and watched as the vehicle quickly turned and sped off to join up with the Scorpion on their hidden perch.

Good, she thought as she turned toward the ravine's incline; now, it was just her and her task.

Taking one sweeping look over the path in front of her, she dropped to a quick trot, advancing quickly up the mild incline as she hopped from one rocky ledge to another.

Reaching the top, she mentally activated her tactical cloak via her cranial implant before she crossed into the base's sensors field of view and then paused just over the edge, observing the base's perimeter before her.

At the distance, the activity seemed to be minimal. The few patrolling guards were quickly detected and marked out on her HUD, the suit's VI outlining their movements. The base's sensors were sweeping the outer perimeter, marked by the intermittent sounds as they swept the location she was at.

She lowered her head and shoulders back below the ravine's edge, letting her cloak's capacitors recharge before she cloaked again, vaulted the edge, and ran toward the small gully a few dozen meters out.

Landing on her feet, she de-cloaked and set off at a quick trot through the gully, keeping her head and shoulders low. She moved with care, paying close attention to her surroundings and everything the suit's narrow-band scans were painting out on her HUD. Zero traps so far. Good.

The gully's floor began to rise and taper off, and she dropped to all fours, prowling carefully toward the edge. Approaching the edge as much as possible, she activated the cloak and raised her head to look around. The closest prefab structure was less than a hundred meters away, her narrow band scanners once more showing the approach clear of any traps; Cerberus must've felt comfortable that they felt the satellites scanning the outer space were the sufficient early warning.

Checking left and right, she marked a couple of visible guards at the far sides, and the VI instantly calculated and displayed their field of vision and their blind spots.

She went down once more, resetting her cloak before she surged out of the gully, crossing the hundred meter dash in seconds and planting her back silently against the prefab's wall.

She let the cloak taper off.

With her back planted against the wall, she edged along it, using the cover of structures as she advanced. Keeping to the blind spots, she dodged a guard patrol and a security cam, then went for the clear stretch until she reached the needed location.

Cloaking, she peered around the corner.

The security station was there, in the same state as the orbital scans showed it to be – a bunker-type structure, protruding from the larger building's side, sporting fortified walls with broad but low windows and doors at the side. All of the ports open, with low-density barriers separating the inner, breathable atmosphere from the outer, noxious one. Two guards; one inside, at the security console, wearing no helm; the other one outside, under full combat gear. Both looking at leisure and bored out of their wits.

She hacked into their comms.

" _-about why the Ice Queen was here last week?_ " the one outside asked.

" _I did,_ " the one in the guardhouse replied. " _The word is there was an information leak and they had to perform an emergency shutdown of one of the other cells. The Illusive Man's sent her to personally examine the state of readiness of all of the bases everywhere."_

The one outside snorted. " _She'll have work cut out for her,_ " he said mirthlessly. " _Too bad she wasn't around for much longer."_

" _What? Don't tell me you thought you had a shot with her?_ "

" _No, but I didn't mind the scenery._ "

The other inside snorted. _"No, way man. I'm glad that she's gone. She talks to you and you have to be on top of your game, except that that catsuit of hers is making your eyes go down and your brain turn to mush. I don't need that kinda pressure."_

" _Think she does that on purpose?"_

" _Who knows…"_

She tuned them out. The conversation they were having was good enough for her needs; gossiping kept people relaxed and their alertness low.

Looking up from the two guards at the small sensor array antenna at the guard station's rooftop, she focused and channeled her biotics at it. The antenna slowly rotated in its axial joint until it faced the rear wall. It didn't take the guard inside the station long to notice something was off on his instruments.

" _Uhh… hey, Mike, can you check out the sensor array for me?_ "

A pause. " _Yeah, it's facing the other way! What gives?"_

" _Must be a glitch in the engine control software,_ " he said and pressed the controls to realign the sensor array properly.

Jaina pressed hard with her biotics, blocking the weak servo engine's gear in its tracks.

The guard inside harrumphed frustratedly. " _The engine's acting up,_ " he said. _"It must be clogged up by dust. Lemme just report this… Control, this is guard station 2. Sensor array's engine is acting up; going up to check it out._ "

He hung up, then grabbed his breather helm and went outside.

" _Come on, give me a hand with this one,_ " he said, and both of them started climbing the ladder to the top of the structure.

Taking the created opportunity, Jaina cloaked and dashed out from the corner, slipping soundlessly into the security station through its opened doors. Not wasting any time, she instantly went for the ventilation shaft, slicing the bolts that held the hatch away with her omni-tool and popped it off as soundlessly as she could. She hopped in lithely like a cat, then used her biotics to lift and secure the hatch back into place.

She twisted agilely inside the vent, her feminine physique lending her the flexibility, and advanced further down the hatch. She slithered smoothly like a serpent, minimizing the chance of the high-powered anti-materiel rifle and the SMG that were folded on her back striking the walls.

It didn't take her long to find her way through the shaft maze and reach the underground hallways that linked the entire complex.

Finding herself on top of a hallway, she peered through the grate hatch and prepared an active sensor sweep through the surrounding area. She knew that this deep inside a base, installing active scan detectors was not feasible.

The broadband sweep she launched quickly bounced through the hallways, penetrating the thinner walls and bouncing through chambers whilst disappearing in thicker rocks through which the complex ran. Within moments, the HUD pinged back with the closest area minimap, the surveillance systems, power conduits, and people. Zero cameras were overlooking the hallway she was at.

With her omni-tool, she quickly removed the bolts of the vent hatch and was about to pop it off, when her HUD pinged a warning: a pair of people were approaching her location. She stopped all motion and focused her senses. A male voice came through:

"… loved to have had two minutes alone with that Lawson woman to bring up my charms," a man spoke, sounding cocky as hell.

"You wish," the other, much level-headed voice spoke. "They don't call her the Ice Queen for nothing."

"I'm surprised by you," the gigolo chastised. "A man should accept the challenge. I mean, have you seen her? Man, that ass effect makes my mass erect!"

The second guy sighed. "You're hopeless."

The two men passed by and she took a good look at them. Both wore uniforms that were cut like a military crewman's outfit. Low rank – grunts.

With their backs to her, she silently dislodged the hatch, lowering it down with her biotics and slithering out of the hatch, cloaking the moment her feet touched the floor. She replaced the hatch and silently trotted after the two men, catching up as they neared the end of the hallway.

"You know, you always sound like a by-the-book guy," the gigolo ranted at the other guy. "But I think you and the others are too uptight. You gotta relax. Now, I'm gonna grab me a beer and then have a good R&R. Whaddaya say?"

"See ya later, Harm," the other guy brushed him off.

"Pfff… Whatever. Your loss."

The two men separated at the two-way intersection and Jaina knew which one to follow. No matter how big, no matter how well-trained, and no matter how zealous, there was _always_ a weak link or two in any organization. And the laid-back gigolo just happened to be one.

She prowled silently after him down the empty hallway, waiting for the best moment to strike; and it was coming up on them real fast – a small side chamber, most likely used as a storage closet.

The man walked by the door without a care in the world, when he suddenly heard them hiss open behind him.

Reflexively, he turned his head to glance at it, when he suddenly felt something bumping the back of his knee, buckling the leg and sending him careening toward the floor. He yelped, his hands lashed outward, trying to prevent the fall, when his body suddenly glowed blue and went weightless as a pair of hands roughly grabbed him by the back of his shirt, spun him through the air, and threw him into the closet like a sack of potatoes.

He slammed bodily into the crates, knocking the air out of him before he fell head-first down onto the floor.

Before his spinning head and pain-addled brain could comprehend what had happened, the pair of hands grabbed him again, spun him around like a helpless babe, and pinned him down in an elaborate body lock. He opened his mouth to shout in distress but didn't get far as something gripped him around the throat like a vice, blocking all air.

And then came the pain. Excruciating, agonizing pain.

He began jerking violently, trying instinctively to get loose, but he barely moved an inch. Somewhere in his hazed, panicking mind, he realized the pain was coming from the region of his kidney. It seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Then it ceased.

It was like strings of his body were cut. He went limp, all strength in his body leaving him. The choke on his throat relented, letting him wheeze the air in, but he didn't have the strength to so much as mewl.

And then, like a contrast to the pain, a hot and titillating female voice tickled his earlobe from behind.

"Do I have your undivided attention?" she spoke huskily, the voice both seductive and deathly chilling at the same time.

His head quickly jerked in the 'yes', eager to do anything to prevent the pain.

"Good," she crooned as she slowly shifted.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed the woman's gauntleted hand trailing down his front until it cupped his scrotum. A light blue haze enveloped it and he felt an unseen force begin to gently roll and vibrate against his balls.

"Have you ever experienced what it's like using biotic fields during sex?" she asked. "My husband likes letting me do these things for him, you know… It's the trust and thrill; like the blowjob – the knowing that the thing that could tear your dick away is instead being used tenderly to give you pleasure. And it requires great control, because if you're careless and let the passions get the better of you… you can rip the flesh right off." She warped her biotics for emphasis, sending pain deep into his balls. His grunt was high-pitched. She continued:

"As you can see, you can be sure that I have had plenty of opportunities to perfect my control and keep your jewels from being too damaged so that the pain can go on, and on, and on… So… either you unlock your omni-tool and provide administrative privileges, or I will make you wish you were born a woman."

A small whimper escaped the gigolo's lips, and he began nodding empathically.

She shifted her hold on him, releasing his hands, and the man went down to work. He was a low-level grunt, but his omni-tool painted him as a 'friendly' and it had the base's layout. She cloned the entire omni-tool content onto her own advanced, spec-ops grade one, setting it to send out the coded 'friendly' signature.

The moment the transfer was complete, Jaina's black N7 ka-bar knife flew out of its holster and sank hilt-deep into the man's neck. With a few final gurgles and a surge of blood, the man's life drained away from him as he was laid quietly onto the floor.

With that, Jaina scanned the outside area and left the closet without a backward glance, only bothering long enough to weld the lock shut with an electric overload.

With the stolen omni-tool's info at her disposal, Jaina quickly navigated through the compound all the way to the main server room, using her cloak to quickly slip past everything and everyone in her way.

When she reached the main server room's entrance, she saw that it was guarded by a pair of cameras and protected by a secure access console. Quite expected. Raising her cloak, she crossed straight into the cameras' field of vision unseen and slapped on some omni-gel onto the lock, letting the omni-tool fuel the newly-forming circuitry's as it spread through the lock, bypassing the entire system and opened the doors in mere seconds.

A couple of scientists currently in the room turned around to see the doors open to the empty space of the hallway.

"Dafuq…?" one of them muttered as he stepped away from a terminal and walked up to the doors.

He looked left and right, seeing no one. He reached to the console to the side and pressed the manual close. The doors stayed open. He tapped his comms.

"Uhh… this is Halid at the main server. Something's wrong with the doors. Send a security team with someone to check it up, asap!"

" _Roger that,_ " came the response.

Another scientist approached and tried a couple more clicks to the manual override.

"Nothing," he muttered as they both began checking out the doorframe at where the electric mechanism should be as if looking it over would cause it to work again.

Neither of them had noticed the black-armored woman de-cloaking behind them and inserting an OSD into the main terminal's port.

As they slowly and cautiously backtracked into the room, the black-armored woman disappeared behind her cloak and slipped past them unseen, walking through the wide open doors and leaving the server room as if she had never been there.

With the most important part of the work over, Jaina quickly retreated down the halls, advancing toward the flight control tower for the second part of their plan. As she advanced further away from the main server, the security installments quickly went non-existent, and she abandoned all stealth as she passed into the control tower's access hall.

At this point, stealth was no longer necessary.

"Hey, who are you?!" one of the two fully armed and armored guards at the elevator shouted out in alarm when he saw her sprint toward them, raising his hand in a halting motion as he moved to intercept her.

Too late he noticed the red-and-white strip down her arm. Too late did he notice the N7 logo. Before his eyes even managed to widen in shock, she was on top of him.

With a running jump, she raised both her knees high and slammed them straight into his chest with a crushing force, lifting him off his feet and sending him crashing six feet backwards with her kneeling on his torso. The other guard quick-drew his sidearm, only to have her foot lash out and slam into his shin from below, sending his head straight into her waiting knee. The strike rattling his brain around, she grabbed his helmeted head between her shins and spun her whole body lengthwise in a 360, snapping his neck like a twig before she quick-drew her silenced Carnifex and pressed the muzzle into the first guard's neck, pulling the trigger twice and spraying a mist of blood over the floor.

Jumping up on her feet, she entered the elevator and promptly pressed the top floor button, readying her hand cannon, an omni-tool EMP blast, and priming her biotics all in one go.

Not five seconds later, the elevator buzzed to a halt and the doors opened, with her blindly launching an overloading EMP followed by a biotic push. The two armed guards that were waiting for her went flying back with their shields shortened out, with her stepping out of the elevator and planting two shots in each of their heads with dead-eye precision.

The two control tower operators at the back fared even worse as their pistol shots got swatted away by Jaina's powerful shields before she planted one shot in each of their unshielded foreheads.

She stepped up to the command tower's console and promptly disabled the main hangar bay's doors, locking the shuttles down, then stepped out onto the terrace that circled the control tower's top floor. Taking a long, sweeping look over the surrounding area, she took a first-person account of the base's layout and then tapped the comm link.

"Thunder, this is Viper," she called out through her comms, finally breaking the radio silence. "Strike's a go! I say again, strike's a go!"

"Affirmative," came the single word from Marcus.

With that, she went down to one knee, replacing her hand cannon on her hip and reaching out over her shoulder.

The powerful anti-materiel rifle unfolded in her arms, elongating the stock and barrel and clicking the extensions into place. From where she perched, an uninhibited view of the entire soon-to-be battlefield laid in front of her like an open palm. Zooming into the distance with her helm's binocs, a pair of dots transformed themselves into the two recognizable hover vehicles charging at full speed and afterburners toward the base.

At that moment, powerful, resounding alarms rose to existence all over the base.

Long before the defending troops managed to react, though, the Scorpion's new main gun discharged.

With a high-pitched whizz, the round sliced into the first enemy AA turret with unstoppable force and exited on the other side, the exit shock making the turret's armor blossom out like a flower.

Not two seconds later, the second AA turret received the next round that struck straight through its eezo core, making it explode with a blue shockwave and a shower of electric sparks. Any kinetic barriers that the two turrets should have had might as well have been nonexistent next to the Scorpion's main gun powered by the large core.

At that point, the defensive surface turrets that spanned the perimeter finally woke up, rotating toward the oncoming threat and spinning up their guns as the few patrolling troopers ran toward the defensive positions.

"Normandy, the AA towers are down," Jaina commanded as she observed the battlefield. "Get down here."

" _Roger that, Commander; combat drop and assault underway,_ " Joker replied.

She turned to the assault vehicles.

"Thunder, ignore the external defensive perimeter; fly over it and get straight into the base's courtyard – the turrets won't have the angle of attack on you there." she directed, commanding coolly and calculatedly.

"Roger that," Marcus replied.

"The enemy platoons are forming up on the outside," she continued, "Marking and tracking their positions."

The two vehicles whooshed over the base's outer perimeter, shrugging off the few defensive turrets' shots that managed to connect and diving in, guns blazing. Swaths of defending troops were blasted up into the air as the force of the heavy guns inverted earth and the defenders scattered toward the closest defensive positions.

"Three armored vehicles approaching your position," she called out from her perch, marking the encroaching APCs. "Dispatch them first…" She glanced to the other side from the corner of her eye. "… you have fifteen seconds."

The two hover vehicles boosted up over the building that covered them, taking bead straight toward the enemy vehicles and rained fire down on them. The rounds quickly defeated the enemy APCs' barriers and sliced through the weakly armored rooftop, the vehicles jerking as the concussive force and explosions racked them.

"Get down, now!" Jaina commanded, and the vehicles instantly ducked behind the cover of buildings without question. "A large squad of enemy heavies is bearing down on you carrying ML-77s. Normandy! I want a strafing run at this line!" she declared, marking the vector on the global HUD.

" _Roger that, Commander; ETA: NOW!"_

She glanced up just in time to see the sleek silhouette of the aircraft-shaped vessel wrapped in a supersonic shockwave bearing down on the base, right before a burst of a dozen small missiles surged out of its wing nacelles and wreaked fiery havoc straight down the marked line. The blast of the fiery inferno rocked the entire base, rattling the superstructure that she sat on and illuminating the area in a blaze of gold as the fiery plume rose above it.

"Jesus, Joker, save some for us," she chided.

" _Uh, yeah – I'm respectfully refusing that order…?_ " he replied smugly as the Normandy swept over the base, braking its speed in a cobra maneuver before it banked and doubled back. " _You can court martial me later._ "

"You're lucky I'm in the good mood," she replied. "Marking the Triton drop point, now. Thunder crew, sortie, and advance on foot! Garrus, I want you on that perch _there_. Watch my back and snipe any targets of opportunity."

"Roger that," Garrus responded.

The teammates' silhouettes began popping up in green over her HUD as they left their vehicles and began grouping into pre-designated packs just as the Normandy reached the position and leveled out above them. The cargo bay doors swung open and the heavy machines walked out, dropping to the ground with a thunderous bang, followed quickly by the rest of Miller's marines being dropped with mass effect field.

The fireteams assembled with cutting efficiency, taking up covered holds as the Tritons lumbered forward. Looking closer to home, Jaina assessed the enemy dispositions.

"Triton-1," she directed, "advance down _this_ lane. Triton-2, advance down the opposite side. Pincer maneuver."

"Right-o," Miller's voice came through from the Triton's cockpit.

The Cerberus troops had, by that point, reformed and bolstered with the men that left the inner sanctum of the compound. Just as Jaina predicted, the large force advanced tactically in an attempt to flank the attackers, when the Tritons lumbered out from two opposing sides, catching them right in the open ground.

The blazing inferno of the 12.7-cal rounds crisscrossed over the open field, scything the entire groups of Cerberus troopers and stopping the entire assault dead in its tracks, the Cerberus troops falling back in droves behind any protective walls they could find.

"They're bunkering down," Jaina declared. "Biotic team, advance down your right through the cover! Tritons, be aware: the hostiles are bringing out heavy weapons. Keep advancing." Her voice turned deathly cold." I'll take the heavies off your back."

Her anti-materiel rifle swiveled down and her killer cold gaze turned on the Cerberus troops' fully exposed rear as she aimed with both of her eyes open.

The blast pierced the air like a whiplash, thundering and echoing at the same time.

A Cerberus rocket trooper slumped against the wall he was hiding behind, his head sliced clean off his shoulders.

The trooper behind him jerked back and fell on his ass after a full second delay, wondering what was the gooey red and grey substance that had suddenly splattered itself all over his visor. The trooper behind him looked up dumbly at the headless corpse and the huge splatter of blood on the wall before his head exploded as well while the second guy was still reaching up in confusion to wipe the blood and brain off his visor.

One of the Cerberus troops managed to shout out, "Sniper!" before the third head exploded.

The Cerberus troopers scrambled in panic, diving for any cover that provided protection from as many sides as possible. Instead, they found that the deep penetration ammo just went through the walls; through the crates; through everything. And where she didn't strike, Garrus would. No enemy trooper could escape his keen raptor eyes.

Through the blaze of combat, she heard the hiss of the elevator doors far behind in the control tower, followed by the vibration of two pairs of feet running out onto the terrace where she was. A thunderous sniper blast echoed through the air once, and the two pairs of running feet turned into a pair of thuds as the pair of lifeless bodies fell down from one shot.

"Thanks, Garrus," she said without even flinching to turn, the jovial tone in her voice not even registering on her stone-cold, deadly visage. "Biotic team, you're coming up on a large squad, tightly grouped," she said without even looking that way, merely continuing to fire her rifle at the remaining entrenched troops.

Three seconds after she said that, a lift-warp-throw combo flashed in the corner of her eye, and a group of limp enemy troops flew out into the open like ragdolls, their bodies puffing the blue biotic mist residue as the fiery rounds tore through the ones that remained of their squad.

Taking note of the remaining enemies in her sights, she hacked into the Cerberus comms and spoke slowly, chillingly:

"Remaining Cerberus troops, this is Alliance Commander Jaina Shepard. I am giving you the one and final chance to drop your weapons and come out with your hands on your head. You have five seconds to comply."

Instead, she saw all of the remaining troopers mustering zealously, preparing for a glorious last stand for the cause. She raised her rifle and took a bead.

"Kill 'em," she said and pulled the trigger.

The Normandy's team fell down to the remaining entrenched squad of enemy troops like piranhas; it wasn't even fair. But since time immemorial, when it came to the question of living through the frontlines, nobody ever argued against the overkill.

Within a mere couple of minutes, the last few Cerberus troopers that had sortied to defend the base were dead, and the battlefield fell silent.

Jaina stood up on her perch and took stock of the battlefield and the status of her crew before she spoke:

"We should hurry up and storm the base while we still –"

Before she finished, a loud hiss and a clang sounded off to her side where the control tower's terrace doors were at. A red hologram of a lockdown stood in place, and a quick glance through the window told her the elevator doors were the same.

"Well, that takes that plan out the window," she commented, then turned her gaze back toward the base exterior. "Miller! Have your men pilot the Scorpion and the Hover-Mako. The Scorpion is to run a patrol circle above the base and scout for any Cerberus personnel. The Tritons and the Hover-Mako are to deploy in a one-by-two formation in the courtyard for a guard duty."

"Roger that, ma'am," he said.

She then turned toward one of the entrances at the ground level, marking it on their joint network. "That entrance is the closest one to the main server. It will be the quickest to penetrate; we should assemble there."

"I'll send the Hover-Mako to get you, ma'am," Miller spoke from the Triton's cockpit.

"No need," Jaina said and vaulted over the terrace's fence into a free fall.

Channeling her biotics, she lowered her own mass and let the surrounding air slow down her descent, finishing with a parkour landing and roll, and promptly getting up on her feet. Trotting up to Marcus, the two briefly touched each other with their free hands, almost to reassure one another of the other one's presence.

"Normandy?" Marcus spoke up, raising his gaze upward to the ship that hovered above them.

" _Right here, Commander,_ " Joker responded jovially.

"Good work with that strafing run, but how about we improve that?" he spoke as he walked with Jaina to join up the rest of the team. "I want you to unlock the ship's defensive GARDIAN arrays and switch them to manual targeting. Those lasers can cut down through swaths of ground troops with next to zero collateral. Keep them that way unless you detect enemy ships."

" _And here I thought the Normandy didn't have enough weapon options,"_ Joker quipped amusedly. " _On it, Commander!"_

"Good," Marcus said as they all assembled in front of the main doors. "How does that lock look like, Tali?" he asked.

"This is some advanced security algorithm I'm seeing here," the girl replied. "And they have an explosive charge set at the door. Give me a moment."

"That's one serious approach to security, alright," Garrus commented.

"Not one of the men outside surrendered," Liara said with stark realization. "Not even those last few men when we encircled them. They were wounded, yet they still fought."

"Makes you think we won't find anything different once we breach the interior," Wrex rumbled. "Something to be aware of."

"True," Marcus said, then looked to Jaina at his side. "Jaina, fall back; I'm taking over command from here. Hallway combat will require a bit more of a blunt instrument."

"Understood," she said, taking a step back and prepping her SMG.

"Wrex and I are up front," he declared. "Liara and Jaina are right at our backs."

The two women instantly repositioned, firmly planting their left palms against the two men's backs and bracing, their light SMGs braced securely against their shoulders and aiming around the men's shoulder and flanks.

"Garrus, Tali, the middle as soon as the doors are opened. Kaidan, Ash – rear guard!"

"Got it!" Tali exclaimed as the light on the door's lock turned green, the large metal doors sliding open.

The team shuffled into the very large airlock, obviously designed to allow an entire platoon to fit in, with Tali effortlessly hacking into the system and hijacking the locked-down processes.

"Prep for hostiles," he directed, and Jaina and Liara immediately shimmered blue.

The chamber quickly filled out with breathable air and the opposite doors slid open to reveal a long hallway; and a whir of a hostile weapons system spinning to life.

Instantly, Jaina and Liara slammed down a massive barrier in front of them, blocking the spray of rounds from the ceiling turrets dead in its tracks as Marcus and Garrus discharged the EMPs, locking their mechanisms with a flurry of electric sparks.

A swift burst of concentrated gunfire from the entire team tore the turrets down to shreds, blasting them off of their turreted housing like they were made of cardboard.

"Move!" Marcus barked.

With the base's interior already at their HUDs, they quickly advanced down the corridor in their established disposition, passing the first juncture and reaching the doors to the largest chamber on the base.

Tali promptly rushed forward, raising her omni-tool to begin a hack, when the door's holographic interface turned from red to green.

Faster than the mind processed, Marcus's arm lashed out sideways like a bar, halting Tali's advance just as the first hiss of the hydraulics heralded the doors opening, and he flicked his adrenaline implants on with a mental command.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as colors and lights became more vivid, his mind evaluating in a microsecond what would otherwise take fatally too long. As the two halves of the door began crawling apart at a snail's pace, the large room opened up before him and his gaze scanned the battlefield:

Whatever furniture or objects had been present in the room had been moved and rearranged into an improvised protective bulwark at the far side, with no less than thirty enemy combatants securely entrenched behind it, and a completely open killzone in between.

And in a split microsecond, his adrenaline-fueled mind knew what to do.

His biotics surged into a form, space and time distorting as the shock front of a biotic charge began to coalesce in front of him. He moved forward into a half-crouch, the wake of the shock front enveloping him as he positioned his left shoulder forward in a practiced motion. The front reached critical yield and discharged, pulling the entire space-time bubble that wrapped Marcus in its wake and sending him flying straight toward the enemy's frontline.

The mass effect front cannonballed through the improvised bulwark, the impact destabilizing it and morphing it into a powerful shockwave that sent the objects and bodies flying. Wasting no time, he launched a Nova follow-up, blasting everything around him away in an explosion of debris.

Just as his adrenaline surge came to a close, another biotic charge slammed into the enemy's line to his right, discharging a follow-up nova as well and tearing another gaping hole in their formation.

Knowing that his right was secure, he pivoted in his crouch leftward, launching a long burst of explosive rounds into the stunned enemy's lines just as a group of massive biotic combos began tearing into their ranks to the far left, lifting them, slamming them, warping them and exploding with impunity.

And then, Wrex steamrolled through the bulwark, throwing everything and everyone around like a raging bull, his claymore barking and barking relentlessly as it tore the limbs and ribcages apart.

Crippled, shocked, and awed, and with their own allies in the line of fire, all plans went out the window as even their ability to retaliate was nulled. Within mere seconds, the entirety of a platoon-strong unit succumbed to the unstoppable onslaught.

The mayhem stopped as fast as it had started, the silence deafening.

"RRRAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHA!" Wrex's triumphant laughter exploded through the chamber. "Destroying your enemies so utterly like that? Now _that_ is a _**cathartic pleasure**_!"

A moment of silence.

"When was it the last time you got laid again?" Garrus jabbed.

"Don't worry, turian," Wrex retorted. "I will _always_ have twice as many balls and see twice as much action than you."

"Men," Tali said with a shake of her head as she passed them with Ashley and Liara in tow.

"And here I thought only human men were susceptible to that," Ashley agreed with a snicker. "Guess it really does cross the species boundary."

"Is this the fabled phenomenon of males measuring whose is bigger?" Liara asked with a smile. "You will _have_ to explain that to me sometime."

"Oh, you don't know what you've been missing, hon!" Ashley croaked.

As the three girls passed them by, the four men looked at each other. Then their gazes fell down for a split second. Then, back up again. Squaring their shoulders and looking around as if nothing happened, they returned to their positions. A muffled snorting snigger came from Marcus's side and he looked down to be met with Jaina's amused gaze, and her shoulders heaving as she tried her damnedest to suppress her laughter.

Ah well, Marcus shrugged internally; it's not like it was the worst or most ridiculous position she ever caught him in.

"Advance," he called.

Losing little time, they advanced down the hallway, passing next to empty common rooms, storage rooms, offices and security stations, until they reached the large server room that Jaina had previously visited.

The doors were wide open, and a group of unarmed and unarmored people was working frantically on it, completely oblivious to anything but their work.

Marcus waited a second until his team had fully entered and fanned across the chamber before he hollered:

" **Nobody move!** "

" _Nobody move!_ " Kaidan and Ashley parroted in turn as they aimed down their sights at the panicking men.

Shouts of surprise and fear echoed throughout the apparent scientists as almost all of them jumped up in fear and _**moved**_.

" _ **DON'T. MOOOOVE!**_ " Marcus hollered thunderously, freezing all of the men and women at their spots. "Keep your hands _**UP**_ where I can see them! Good! Now, move _**SLOWLY**_ toward _**that**_ open area of the room. _**SLOWLY**_!"

The scientists moved as he instructed, with Garrus promptly slipping behind them and securing each of their hands behind their back with plastic zip cuffs before forcing them to sit down on the ground.

As the rest of the team was busy securing the techies, Jaina advanced to the main server hub, where rows and rows of data were rolling across the main screen at great speed.

"It's no use," one of the scientists spoke up heatedly, his tone that of spite, "the purge of all the data is already long underway." The main server's screen suddenly pinged, showing a single red line denoting a critical error. "And it's done," he said smugly.

Jaina looked at him, then to the server, then reached down to one of the several OSD ports and ejected the Prothean-standard disk hybrid.

"Tali," she called, proffering the disk.

Tali grabbed it and placed it into the slot on her omni-tool, and scanned the disk contents.

"Hah!" the techie barked. "You Alliance types and xenos sure are stupid to think that an OSD would retain any data! It was a full media purge! It would have –"

"It's all here," Tali spoke up, interrupting him as she raised her eyes solemnly to Jaina. "It has managed to clone their entire system!"

The Cerberus techie's mug turned from smug to incredulous in record time.

"Y… you're bluff –"

A head-rattling smack from Wrex silenced him.

"Enough yapping, lest I devour your liver," the huge krogan rumbled annoyedly. "I heard it's quite tasty with some fava beans and a khiati."

"Chianti," Marcus corrected, not taking his eyes off the Cerberus personnel.

Wrex harrumphed. "Yeah. What he said."

The scientists paled, their throats working audibly as they gulped.

Marcus reached up and unclasped his faceless helmet, removing it, and then glared down at the scientists with his icy eyes for a few long moments. The few men and women were shifting where they sat with their hands bound behind their backs, fidgeting nervously as they tried tucking their heads deeper between their shoulders. Even the loudmouth from before found his throat suddenly dry. All of them were scared. All of them were turning their gazes away from his. All except one of them.

"Who's was in charge?" Marcus demanded, sending the question to all of them.

Most of the scientists immediately glanced at the one man that didn't seem as phased as the rest, sitting with his back straight and head held high instead, with Marcus following their gaze to him. There was an unmistakable superiority complex in the man's eyes, far more than what was healthy for anyone in his situation.

Marcus turned bodily toward him and scrutinized him for a few moments as Jaina leisurely and unperceptively walked behind the scientist, standing above him. The man turned and cast a brief look at her before turning back toward Marcus.

"You don't know who you're dealing with here, officer," the man said, his voice dripping acid. "Acquiring this data will only put you in the crosshairs of the most powerful people within the Alliance military brass. It would be wise if you were to release us and forget everything has ever happened."

Marcus glanced at Jaina, giving her a silent cue.

She reached down and grabbed the scientist, applying pressure at a specific location. The scientist screamed – first in surprise, and then in shear and unbearable agony, his legs and body thrashing futilely as he tried to escape the pain. After a few seconds of wrenching her fingers into the spot, Jaina released him, leaving him to pant it out.

"I am Commander Marcus Shepard, of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel Council," Marcus spoke. "The Alliance has no jurisdiction over me, and you have no rights in front of me. You fail to understand that I can gouge out your eyes and then leave you on Omega, with nobody in the Galaxy the wiser. And after it was over, I would still be left to do my job, and you'd still be left blind – for the rest of your life."

The man seemed defiant, even though Marcus recognized a shadow of dread crossing his face.

"The organization I work for would find me, given time," he said, trying to sound brave. "And they would heal me."

"You sound pretty convinced of that," Jaina crooned softly as he gently rubbed on the neural cluster she had mercilessly pressed upon a minute ago, making the scientist flinch.

"He does indeed," Marcus rumbled as he stared down at the scientist for a couple of moments, and then began slowly removing his gauntlets. Hooking them on his belt, next to his helmet, he stepped up and crouched down in front of him, just boring into the man with a grim glare for a few silent moments. And then his hand lashed out and grabbed him by the side of his neck, pinching the flesh into his grip hard, like holding an unruly dog by the scruff.

The scientist made a short, gargling sound as he tried tucking his head into his shoulders, but Marcus's grip was firm; his palm was already absorbing and sifting through the chemical imprints of the scientist's memories with an ease that could be compared with browsing the extranet. The impression of who and what kind of person the scientist was, what kind of job he did here, what kind of people were his coworkers – all of it, and more, was laid bare before Marcus. It was not perfect, true; the images and sounds were blurry, but the _mental impression_ they carried was something that transcended them in a far better way. And Marcus did not like what he was seeing one bit.

Cerberus was a huge, sprawling organization, with operating cells that were only aware that there were others, but that much was clear to him already. The ugly surprise lied in _how_ Cerberus did its business and the shear extent of how far they were willing to go to achieve it. 'The end justifies the means' did not even come close.

But the Man of the organization… _the Illusive Man_ , the imprint spoke… he was always there, and not. He was always present but never seen. The invisible puppet master that controlled a thousand strings. _Fear_ ; that's what the chief scientist felt when thinking of the Illusive Man. Fear. And a calculated, ruthless, and unscrupulous personality.

Marcus pushed the scientist away roughly and stood up, his face grim. The scientist coughed, trying to rub the sore spot on his neck with his shoulder, his face showing complete confusion.

"He's not gonna tell us a lot. Not like this," Marcus said, and then shared a look with Jaina. "We don't have that much of a time to interrogate them. We'll have to leave this to the Alliance's interrogation experts."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Garrus spoke up urgently with a shake of his head. "If the information we have on Cerberus is true, then they have agents deep within the Alliance. This scumbag will walk free in no time! I've seen it many times before."

"He has a point," Jaina agreed, looking at Marcus. "And based on what we suspect Cerberus's average span of activities is, he might be too great of a threat to be out."

Marcus thought on it for a moment and then looked at her, silently giving her a go. Jaina reached down with her hands to the confused chief scientist's head and cleanly snapped his neck.

The other scientists shouted out, and one of them even released a veritable sissy squal as the limp body of the chief scientist fell down to the ground.

"Hehehe," Wrex chuckled evilly. "Look at that one. He's pissing himself."

The man actually was. A wet patch had begun forming all along his crotch and was spreading along the inside of his thighs. One didn't need to be a mind reader to recognize the terror and desperation on the rest of the scientist's faces, but Marcus, in particular, was struck by a palpable and rancid sensation that radiated out of the Cerberus personnel.

"The rest of them can be left for the Alliance to interrogate them," Marcus stated, bringing any further shouting to a hold. "If they don't talk, well…"

He pointedly trailed off, letting the scientists themselves realize the extent of their own predicament. Jaina shared a small smile with him before she turned to look at Tali.

"Tal, how's it going over there?"

"A lot of data on this system was heavily encrypted," Tali spoke up, sounding for all the life of her eager instead of frustrated. "It will take me some time to crack it. It will be a fun challenge!"

"Good," Marcus nodded, then tapped the comms. "Ground team to Normandy! Land the ship and send out a salvage team."

" _Aye-aye, Commander,_ " Joker called.

"Alright then," Jaina said, clapping her hands for attention. "Listen up! Garrus and Wrex, escort the prisoners to the Normandy, then guide the salvage team back to us. We're gonna scour the interior of this base. Pilfer through any crates that you come upon. Find whatever can be useful for us: weapons, mods, electronics – anything that can be readily picked up and carried off. If we cannot use it, we'll break it down to omni-gel; there's bound to be some valuable materials to be extracted."

The team voiced their assent and spread out, moving off in various directions – Wrex and Garrus escorting the captured scientists, and the rest of the team moving off to various directions. As they moved off, Jaina walked up to Marcus and motioned him to follow her a bit off to the side. She sat back against one of the desks, crossing her arms, and Marcus settled himself right next to her.

"So," she started as she looked up at him with a small, knowing smile. "Are you going to tell me what is going on?"

He looked down at her in slight confusion. "About what?"

"Something is happening _with you_ , Marcus," she stated confidently. "You remove your helmet and gauntlets, and pass with your bared hand above the surface in a seemingly casual manner, yet you wear a frown of concentration as if you're trying to sense something. And then you do. You suddenly stop for a split second, looking like you've had a sudden realization, a sudden find. Your eyes shift focus as if you're seeing a thousand images race in front of you for a split second, and you tilt your head unperceptively as if you're hearing some distant sounds. A moment after that, you suddenly have answers to what was happening in that location, disguising it as a 'gut feeling'. And the same thing seems to happen when you touch people. It happened now with that scientist as well."

She straightened from where she was leaning against the desk, turning and stepping up close in front of him with a knowing smirk on her lips, their armored bodies pressing together.

"So," she said, "are you going to talk?"

There was a moment of resigned pause from Marcus.

"I didn't realize I was that obvious," he said after a moment.

"Aw, poor baby, you still think you can keep things away from your wife," Jaina crooned with a warm smile, then tsk-ed. "I thought I had you trained better than that."

He chuckled heartily, shaking his head.

"And what about the others?" he asked somewhat more seriously. "Have they noticed something strange as well?"

"No," Jaina stated with a shake of her head. "As far as they are aware, that was your usual behavior. They don't know you as well as I do. Sooo," she trailed a finger down his armored front. "Are you going to tell me what is happening, or should I interrogate it out of you?"

He smirked. "I remembered liking it very much the last time when you interrogated me."

"Aw, and you lasted for _sooo looong_ ," she said passionately, squinting her eyes. "But in the end, not even a man like you could endure my techniques."

He chuckled, grabbing hold of her ass with one hand and pulling her in forcefully for a toe-wrenching kiss. They separated after a long moment, panting and looking into each other's eyes.

"Ain't that the truth," he said, making a content sigh. "To notice this on your own? Perceptive little minx, aren't you?"

She shrugged in mock helplessness, giving him an innocent look.

Marcus sighed and nodded. "Truth be told, it was never my intention to keep this hidden from you."

"Good boy," she said warmly. "Now, what is ' _this_ ' thing exactly?"

"Not completely sure," Marcus said somberly with a slight shake of his head. "But it is a sense of some kind. Not some metaphysical 'sixth' sense, but very real, very physical. It all began immediately after Feros, after I had received the Cipher from Thorian. I didn't realize anything at the time, though. It was like a… small feeling in my palms that I've never experienced before, and an itch at the back of my head that went with it. Over the next few days, it began to grow and develop, shaping into something more."

He raised his hand, looking down at it.

"Now, whenever I touch things, I get… impressions on those things. It was like I was absorbing information through my skin and interpreting it. If I would touch a person, I would get impressions of the things about that person. At first, it was only basic things: current emotions, whether the person was telling the truth or not – that sort of thing. Anything more than that was vague, having to be something very recent and very intense for the impression to pass through the threshold. But it was there all the time, like an instinct. It was guiding me in the way in which I had to use it. And it worked."

Jaina was silent, her face a mix of concern and concentration.

"Have there been any complications?" she asked. "Anything that would be troubling?"

He shook his head.

"Nothing," he said sincerely. "It's just a bit strange, that's all… Surely, you'd have noticed any changes before I did, right?"

"Hmm," Jaina hummed, looking off to the side with a frown. "I did notice that you wash your hands more often."

"Yeah," he said. "It's like an aftertaste in your mouth. Washing my hands cleans it up. Except that it's not just hands that I can use to sense things. I can feel strong emotions radiating. I just pick them up."

"Like mind reading?"

"No, this is not mind reading," he shook his head. "This is more like… picking up trails that are left in the air. Like chemistry."

"Why didn't you go to Doctor Chakwas with this?" she asked.

"You needed to be the first to know," he said simply. "Then, I'll go to Chakwas."

She smiled warmly at him. "Fair enough... So, what do you think this thing is, anyway? You say you received it via the Cipher; is it a Prothean thing, or is it a side effect from Thorian?"

"No, this is definitely Prothean," he stated. "The Cipher has given me a lot of… let's call it a recognition ability when it comes to all things Prothean. After the meld with Liara, a lot of things started to become clear. The Cipher has also developed, taken root. This ability is one of those things that came with the package."

She hummed, thinking on it.

"I feel that it would be wise of you to have another meld with Liara," she said seriously. "This ability wasn't manifested during that first time, and we don't really know what it is, or what it does."

Marcus looked at her, thinking it over.

"If it will make you feel better," he acquiesced.

"Come on," she said, standing up and motioning with her head sideways and smirking. "We need to make a lab rat outa you."

"Well, that's comforting," he chuckled as he followed her lead.

...


	25. Chapter 25 - To Be Ensnared

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _I'm sorry about the month-and-a-half delay in posting a new chapter, but I simply couldn't write. It wasn't the question of time or obligations, but I simply could not write. Every sentence I wrote dragged on, it didn't flow, it didn't seem perfect… I rewrote this chapter 4 times before I gave up and dropped it altogether for a few of weeks until it all cleared up._

 _So, YES, I am continuing this story – and there's nothing you can do about it! ;)_

 _Also, there were a couple of anonymous reviews in the previous chapter, and I will take this opportunity to answer them both in detail to every point and question that they have made since as they are anonymous I have no other means:_

 _._

 _Reviewer_ _ **Guest**_ _\- you have posed a number of interesting questions_ _ **:**_

 _ **Q:**_ _You don't think [Cerberus] monitors the suits of every guard for death or vital spikes?_

 _ **A:**_ _Not when they are out of their combat suit and in their R &R hours, which was the case for the guard you were referring to._

 _ **Q:**_ _They put explosives on the elevator but not to destroy the computers or base? Thermite on the hard dives is a simple thing._

 _ **A:**_ _Sure, it's a simple thing – if you were talking about today's tech. This is 150 years into the future. I'm not about to conform the future technology to today's conceptions of whether simply physically destroying the drive would be sufficient to eliminate all instances and traces of the data. A guy from 150 years ago today would have thought that burning all paper documents would be enough, but he wouldn't know about computer or cloud data._

 _ **Q:**_ _Not to mention how cloaking defeats base sensors, which are all thermal not visual even in current times._

 _ **A:**_ _Soldiers in Mass Effect wear fully environmentally sealed suits. Or didn't you play the game? As such, they don't give off body heat. It is also clearly mentioned in-game that suits are often designed to dissipate all heat into the ground through the soles of their boots._

 _ **Q:**_ _What about the Prothean Deus Ex Machina, you said it is adaptive but how does that allow it to copy the hardrive?_

 _ **A:**_ _Do I really need to invent a valid technological method as to how Prothean computers are supposed to work? If I could do that, I'd sell it and be a trillionaire. This is science fiction. So, no, you don't get to know how the Prothean device works; use your imagination – that's what storytelling is all about._

 _ **Q:**_ _You still would need access to the hardrive and much more than simple administrative access just to read it. How does Prothean even adapt to our computers?_

 _ **A:**_ _As I mentioned in two previous answers: how would you know how mass effect computers work 150 years into the future? Or Prothean ones? I certainly don't. I'm being imaginative. It's something called writer's liberty._

 _ **Q:**_ _Can a modern USB drive plug into a cray super computer? Heck, USB 3 doesn't even work without the proper drives from windows 7._

 _ **A:**_ _Again, you are trying to find justification in today's technology to explain the one 150 years into the future. That would be like trying to explain how today's computers work to a guy from 1860-s. They didn't even have electricity, let alone computers. They couldn't even imagine such things. The guy would have no idea what I'm talking about, so why would I even bother?_

 _ **Q:**_ _To think Cerberus is this incompetent and easy to defeat is breaking suspension of disbelief, a child could design better fail safes._

 _ **A:**_ _I don't think that Cerberus appeared incompetent or easy to defeat in any way, but of course, I won't begrudge you your opinion. And if you say that even a child could design those fail safes better, then great – I encourage you to write it and post it as your own story._

 _._

 _To reviewer named_ _ **Whatever**_ _:_

 _You do have a point about Miranda being able to notice and plug the security holes, but I was taking liberties on the matter of her not being fully able to do so on the account of timeframe and logistics needed to alter and enhance security. Increasing the level of readiness across all bases cannot be instantaneous._

 _Also, thanks for the compliments!_

 _._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 6.7.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes, Intrigue, Romance…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 25 – To Be Ensnared**

.

Marcus lied on the medical examination table as the machine's frame slowly swept up his body, a dull buzz filling the air as the scanner made its recordings. The arc frame reached the end of its journey, and the robotic arm raised it up and to the side of the medical table.

"You can stand up now, Commander," Chakwas spoke from the side where she was monitoring the results on the terminal screen.

Marcus sat up and turned sideways, sitting on the edge of the medical bed.

"What's the verdict Doc?" Jaina asked from where she stood off to the side with her arms crossed. "Have you discovered anything that would explain how Marcus has suddenly developed Prothean abilities?"

Chakwas said nothing for a moment, her keen medical eye narrowing as she read out the scans and made causality links.

"I think I have," she said interestedly. "Most unusual indeed." She looked at Marcus with a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "You sure are a magnet for unusual occurrences, Commander," she said.

"I call it my bad luck," he replied dryly, then nodded up toward the monitor. "What did you discover?"

"Well, you were right to come to me, for one," she said with no nonsense as she turned back to the monitor. "I am detecting a wide range of peculiarities. From what you told me of your newly-developed abilities, I have no doubt that these changes that I'm seeing have occurred in your body is what's facilitating them."

"Changes?" Marcus asked pointedly.

"Several of them," Chakwas said significantly. "First of all, your blood and lymph show signs of elevated delta-triceramins of various subtypes. Not a naturally occurring substance in a human body – or any of the known species that originate from Earth."

"Is it dangerous?" Jaina asked in concern.

"Not really," Chakwas replied. "Triceramins are a substance that is similar in function to asari geanadin – a substance that facilitates the skin-to-skin meld. These substances work as a conducive element that transfers neuro-chemical information, but in exceedingly greater density than what is normal for a human."

Jaina hummed. "That does correspond with your apparent ability," she noticed.

"Apparently," he said slowly. "So how can my body be flooded with them, Doc? I'm no medical expert, but the last I checked, human body tends to flush out any foreign substances real quick."

"And that would be true for most cases, but this as far as your body is concerned, Commander, this isn't a foreign substance," Chakwas replied pointedly, then added, "Because you're the one that's producing it."

She turned the display of his body's scan toward them. "Your body itself has changed. You have developed new organs, new neural networks, new receptors. I have never seen anything like it."

Both Marcus and Jaina turned their focused frowns toward the display that held his body's internal scan. Several areas on it were marked out in red.

"That's a lot of red," Jaina murmured worriedly, then raised her eyes to Chakwas. "Are these new bits dangerous?"

"Everything indicates that they aren't," Chakwas replied certainly. "If they were in any way, Commander would have noticed the negative symptoms far sooner. And they'd be far direr."

"So, what are we talking about here?" Jaina wanted to know.

Chakwas tapped a button, and the image highlighted a few areas of Marcus's body.

"These areas of your skin represent the first major metamorphosis that your body has undergone. These areas of your skin are the ones that have developed a network of new types of receptors. As you can see, they are mostly concentrated in your hands, forearms, as well as your facial, cervical, and collar bone area."

"The areas with which I pick up things the most," Marcus noted. He nodded up at the images. "Are those the new sensors? New neural webs?"

"Mixed with specialized chemical receptor buds," Chakwas confirmed, nodding. "They work quite differently than the normal receptors. They are much more precise and differentiating. Our, human, receptors pick up many things from our environment, but are able to only identify them as the most basic human senses – heat, smell, and so forth – but with these new receptors, you'd be able to identify much more. Immensely more. Now, normally, despite these receptors detecting nearly everything, all of it would simply go right past us because our brain wouldn't be able to interpret it, making it as if the trails weren't even there if it weren't for this," she said, circling out a highlighted area inside Marcus's cranium.

"What is it?" he asked.

She turned her piercing gaze at him.

"A whole, new, fully differentiated brain lobe, Commander," she said gravely. "Right there, between the two cortexes. It has developed from your natural neural stem cells in your brain, and it has developed dense neural links with _all other_ brain lobes."

She straightened, then sighed deeply.

"It is this lobe, I think, that is responsible for you being able to actually interpret all of the sensory input that your new receptors are sending its way. No other known species has quite this kind of segment inside their brains. I suspect that this was something that was endemic to Protheans. Only the asari have something remotely similar, but it does not work with skin receptors but only if melded with another neural network."

She glanced at the monitors for a moment.

"From what I see here, I'd say that this new lobe is using all other lobes to interpret the signals it's receiving via skin receptors and form images, sights, and sounds that Marcus can visualize and understand. The link works both ways. But I'd need further study to be sure."

Jaina sighed, a deep frown marring her face.

"This is not a small thing," she said. "These changes are _huge_! A whole new brain lobe? New skin receptors? Something like this doesn't just happen. I know you said it came with the Cipher, but how is it possible that a neural transfer could have caused all _this_?"

"Oh, it was not a neural transfer," Chakwas replied readily. "I've already found the culprit. It's this," she said and popped up a microscope render.

"Are those…?" Jaina murmured, trailing off.

"A form of Thorian spores," Chakwas finished for her. "These ones are dormant now, and whatever content they carried has long been released. I suspect that they were a part of the package that came with you receiving the Cipher from it. Thorian must've transferred them to you somehow."

Marcus and Jaina stayed silent for a few moments, just looking over the data that streamed over the monitors. Almost unconsciously, Jaina took his hand into hers, holding it by her side.

"What is your verdict on their presence, Doctor?" she asked after a few moments of pause. "Are they dangerous?"

"I'd need more data before confirming anything," Chakwas replied. "But they differ from those spores I've detected in Zhu's Hope colonists. These ones are not invasive, and they seem to be concentrated around the new lobe in your brain. I suspect that these spores were responsible for 'directing' your body into forming these new organs. For whatever reason, though, your body is not flushing them out, but they don't seem to be active anymore."

"So, they are not of immediate danger," Marcus stated.

"If they were, you'd be suffering through a series of complications long before now," Chakwas said. "The immune system reacts almost immediately once a foreign body is introduced into the system, and they have had quite a bit of time to sit in your brain. However, from what I'm seeing here, your body's metabolism is perfectly balanced. Your immune system is as strong as ever, your blood chemistry, red and white blood cell count, overall hormonal balance – all of it is top notch!"

"I'm still a bit concerned about all this," Jaina said softly, rubbing Marcus's hand with her thumb as she held it.

"We won't throw caution to the wind, Jaina," Chakwas addressed her, and activated her omni-tool. "I am going to install a monitoring program on Marcus's omni-tool. It will monitor and record a wide variety of data in your body, and send it to me."

Marcus raised his arm, activating his omni-tool and waiting out as the Doctor installed the needed app.

"There we go," the woman said. "I've set this app on low priority; it shouldn't drain too much of your omni-tool processing resources. Your combat effectiveness should not be diminished."

"Good to know," he replied. "Am I free to go now?"

"I didn't realize I was such a boogeyman for you to run away so soon," Chakwas teased.

"Men," Jaina said in mock exasperation, taking Doctor's side.

"Alright, Commander, you are free to go," Chakwas acquiesced. "But a word of caution: even if the monitoring app does not detect anything unusual, but you, on the other hand, do feel something is off, do not hesitate to come here immediately. Something like this has never happened to any human that the modern medicine knows of; it would be irresponsible to ignore anything."

"About that," Jaina ventured then, "I was thinking of one more approach that we might take, which is a bit more 'alternative', so to speak."

"Right," Marcus continued as he stood up. "We were thinking that since this thing is basically based in my brain, that perhaps Liara's mind meld could shed a bit more light."

Jaina continued: "Not as a cure, or anything, just… a scan of his mental state; to see if all the cogs are turning properly."

"Like the time after the Thorian implanted the Cipher?" Chakwas asked, crossing her arms and raising a finger to her chin. "Hmm, that might actually be a very prudent thing to do, assuming Liara would be willing."

"Leave the persuasion to me," Jaina declared imperiously with a ghost of a smile in the corners of her lips as she hopped away toward Liara's chamber.

Chakwas's face lit up mirthfully as she watched Jaina ring the bell and then disappear behind the doors.

"Our XO seems quite eager to keep her commanding officer in top shape," she said, chuckling as she turned to Marcus.

"What can I say, doc – I'm a lucky guy," he replied, gazing toward the closed doors fondly.

"Maybe… Then again, she might just be that eager to have any excuse to befriend our young xenoarchaeologist," she commented amusedly.

"She's just trying to bring Liara out of her shell," Marcus said noncommittally.

"I'll say," Chakwas laughed. "They did spend a lot of time talking the other day. Though, something tells me that Jaina has quite a _different_ agenda than what it seems."

Marcus's face turned stony in a flash. Chakwas was the smartest and most perceptive person on the entire ship; he knew then she'd noticed. And despite everything, it wouldn't do to have the crew know…

A hand touched his bicep softly.

"Do not worry, Commander," Chakwas soothed. "Your and Jaina's secret is safe with me. As a spec-ops soldier, you may not have too much experience as the prolonged member of a warship crew, but I have spent decades as one. In the deep coldness of space, people try to find warmth in whatever arms that'll hold them. And good captains sometimes keep a blind eye to it. So yes, your secret is safe with me."

Marcus felt stony armor drop from his body. He smirked after a moment.

"So, you've noticed that Jaina has some hidden agenda concerning Liara, eh?" he commented as his gaze returned to the closed off doors to Liara's quarters. He smirked. "Well, what can I say, doc – I'm a lucky guy."

Chakwas laughed out loud, her rich, regal voice filling the room for a moment before the doors to Liara's chamber swished open and Liara burst out, her face bearing distress.

"Is it true?!" Liara exclaimed almost frantically as she homed in and rushed up to him. "You're developing physiological traits of the Protheans, including mind abilities?!"

"Well – yes?" he said, mildly confused by her demeanor.

"And you have been practicing them without having any mind training whatsoever?!" she exclaimed, a surprisingly chastising note rising from her throat and mixing with the tones of concern. "Don't you know how dangerous that is?" she went on a lecturing tirade, back straight, one hand on her hip, and wagging her finger at him as she chastised him. "Young asari go through many years of training ever since they're children in order to learn how to use their mental powers safely! Thinking that you could do it on your own is very irresponsible! You could have injured your own mind. Accidents _have_ happened. By the Goddess, what possessed you to do it for this long without telling anyone?"

Marcus laughed, his deep voice reverberating the medbay. "Well, the last time I checked, this mental ability is Prothean, not asari," he pointed out. "Which means that, with the memories and impressions that the Cipher has given me, I happen to be the only one who can justifiably call himself an expert on the matter."

" _Please_ , Commander, I'm just concerned for you," she spoke empathically. "You are strong-willed, yes – especially to endure the Beacon imprint and the Cipher – but even a mind as powerful as yours can fail, and don't want to see that happening. Not to _you_!"

"Well now," Jaina spoke up from behind Liara, a smile forming on her lips, "someone around here is very happy to hear you're devoted to keeping our commanding officer's mental health in peak condition. How about the three of us retreat to somewhere more comfortable so that we can discuss this new development, and all the suggestions you might have, Liara?"

"Yes!" Liara exclaimed with relief. "Thank you, Jaina, for trusting me on this. I'd be more than happy to help! Even giving advice, if nothing else, would calm my mind."

"Good!" Jaina declared, promptly taking both Liara's and Marcus's hands with hers and leading them both out of the medbay as she spoke in a mock-stern tone to Marcus: "And there's no wiggling outa this, Commander Shepard."

He chuckled as he let himself be led. "Wouldn't dream of it, Commander Shepard."

"Take care, Commander," Chakwas called to Marcus warningly as they left the med bay, but her tone carried clear mirth as to what he needed to take care of.

* * *

Jaina ushered Marcus and Liara into their quarters, and bid them to sit at the lounge table. She rummaged through a small cryo unit Marcus had appropriated for their quarters and procured three bottles of cider.

"Here we gope," Jaina declared as she doled out the bottles and sat down on the third chair at the circular table, right next to Liara and on the other side of Marcus. "This would usually be considered as taking advantage of the perks of a command post, but I think this case justifies it... So there - something for us to sip and relax. You really look like you need it, Li," she said and took a pull from the bottle.

Liara took the proffered bottle and sighed deeply.

"Frankly, I don't know where to start," she said, shaking her head as she looked back and forth between Marcus to Jaina. "A human developing a mental ability? If you were an asari, I'd know how to explain it – it's ingrained in us, but this… and _a Prothean_ ability! And of such magnitude! I…"

She huffed anxiously as she sat, fidgeting nervously as her wide blue eyes darted back and forth from Marcus to Jaina. A mix of eagerness, anticipation, nervousness, impatience, and a quite a bit of not-knowing-where-to-start was depicted in her entire expression and posture.

Jaina laughed musically, stepping up behind Liara and placing her hands on the young asari's shoulders.

"Calm down, Liara," she said. "We have a whole evening just for this."

"Easy for you to say," Liara said wide-eyed, a hint of distress crossing her face. "I was researching Protheans for fifty years, asking questions that nobody knew or dared how to ask, and now that the biggest and most important find after the Beacon knowledge is in front of me, I don't know where to start!" she finished with a cute whine.

Marcus chuckled mirthfully and pointed at Liara's untouched bottle, speaking calmly and reassuringly:

"Why don't you start by popping that bottle open and taking a long sip for one?"

"He's right, you know," Jaina sing-sang from her side. "Once you feel the bubbly, sparkly happiness on your tongue, your mind will settle down before you can say 'kebab'!"

Liara took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, tilting the bottle and taking a long pull. Just as Jaina said, she let the bubbles sparkle their way down her tongue and throat, and she took a content sigh.

"Better?" Jaina asked knowingly with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay…" Liara nodded with a sigh, then smiled, inclining her head. "Okay."

"There we go," Jaina said, smiling victoriously. "Now, how about Marcus retells how he first sensed this power and how it progressed?"

"Yes!" Liara said, her eyes widening as she turned to Marcus and leaned in.

She listened with reverent attention as Marcus retold and explained everything he told Jaina, starting from the first notice of the strange new phenomenon, how it called to him and how the Cipher revealed what that new phenomenon was. He explained the way the new ability grew, developed, evolved into the form that the Protheans had had, and how it was still developing and spreading its wings, so to speak, and the way that he used it, and all the places that he did consciously use it.

By the end of it, Liara sat there in front of him, wide eyed, her hands clasped in front of her chest as she leaned against the desktop with her elbows. For all her years, she reminded him of an enthralled teenage girl at that moment. When he finished, Liara closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. When she opened them again, the little girl was gone. Wide eyes were replaced by a content smile and a bold gaze directed his way, and a kind of radiance that a creator had for his greatest achievement.

"That was the most amazing thing that I have ever heard," Liara said calmly and contently, a small smile gracing her features. She spoke up a little more excitedly. "Now I know why that mind meld influenced all three of us that time, even though I wasn't the one to initiate it like that."

"You think it was because of this new ability?" Jaina asked.

"It's gotta be!" Liara stated vehemently as she turned to Jaina, and spoke in a way a lecturing academic does. "Marcus's ability might not have quite the same nature of a mind meld, but it carries through the air, through touch, and it carries a person's thoughts and emotions with them! It must've reacted as a bridge that connected you as well, Jaina, when you held onto him while he and I melded! You are the person that is the closest to him. Your body is attuned to his, just as his is to yours. It would have been easy for this new sense to connect you two."

Marcus and Jaina shared a brief, loving look.

"That actually makes sense," he said slowly. "The Cipher did not transfer that many exact memories, but the impression is clear enough."

"But will it work the second time?" Jaina asked with a small smile.

Liara held her breath in. "You really would want to try having another meld like that one?" she asked, sounding almost hopeful.

"M-hm," Jaina nodded, smiling warmly. "How else are we to know for certain if we're right?" She laughed out loud. "And I, for one, would be happy to be a part of it. Last time it happened, it was _amazing_!" She cocked her head. "You did mention that time that you would not be averse to trying it again. Does the offer still stand?"

"Why, yes, of course!" Liara replied empathically.

"Good," Jaina beamed at her as she stood up and lead Liara by the hand with her. "Now come. If we are going to do it, then let's do it properly. You!" she spoke, pointing to Marcus. "Sit back comfily. And you," she spoke to Liara, "come here."

She led the slightly confused Liara over to where Marcus sat, maneuvering her to face him.

"There. Now, straddle his legs… Like that. Good… and sit down in his lap. There we go."

Letting herself be guided by Jaina, Liara straddled Marcus's lap and sat down uncertainly, looking bashfully cute as her face turned fifty shades of blue blush.

"U-um… i-is this alright?" she asked haltingly. "I-I mean… uh… I don't want to impose…"

Jaina chuckled softly. "If we didn't want you to impose, we wouldn't put you in this position, now would we?"

"Hah!" Liara tittered in relief. "N-no, I suppose not."

"Damn straight. And besides, you are about to do a lot of imposing, aren't you?" Jaina pointed out as she leaned down next to her ear. "Mine and Marcus's minds are about to become open books to you, aren't they? I'd say that next to that, _touching_ , and being _very_ physically close is a mandatory perk, don't you?"

"Ah-hah!" Liara laughed, blushing and biting her lower lip. "Th-that's one way of putting, it, I suppose," she commented as she turned to look up at Jaina over her shoulder.

To someone as perceptive as the female commander, the look of contained want and hopefulness was clear in Liara's eyes. But still, there was that remnant of hesitation – the final seed of fear that needed to be rooted out.

"Good to see we understand each other," Jaina said. "Now, why don't you scooch all the way up," she said, placing her hands on the small of Liara's back and prodding her gently forward.

"Here," Marcus promptly said, taking Liara's hands and placing them on his shoulders before he placed his strong hands on her hips, drawing her in.

Liara complied, scooching forward until her and Marcus's stomach pressed together, and her mound pressed firmly against his crotch, making an electric jolt shoot right up her spine and into her brain.

A hitching gasp escaped her throat. Before she managed to utter a word, though, Jaina straddled Marcus's knees as well and sat down right behind her, pressing tightly against her back and pushing her even more snuggly against Marcus, her hands trailing gently over the curvature of Liara's hips until they settled low on her waist.

"There," Jaina crooned softly right next to the dazed Liara's gill-shaped ear. "Doesn't that feel comfy?"

Liara exhaled a hot breath, almost a gasp.

If someone had told her that morning that she was going to end up in this position, she'd have laughed in their face. Yet, here she was – snuggled tightly between the two humans that had occupied her late night thoughts for weeks now. And it felt _**So. Damn. Good!**_

She became acutely aware of Marcus's hardening member against her mound, of his strong hands on her thighs, of Jaina's soft breasts pressing against her back and her hot breath caressing her ear. She felt her blood torrent through her veins and heat her face and her head crest tentacles, and her heart felt like it would burst any second… if something else lower down wouldn't burst on its own first.

"Weeell?" Jaina urged her. "How does it feel, Li?"

"It feels… _**a-amazing**_!" she breathed out passionately, and then gasped, realizing what it sounded like. Her lidded eyes shot open and looked at Marcus like a doe caught in the headlights.

Jaina hugged her tighter, speaking through a smile, "You're goddamn right it feels amazing. It shouldn't be anything less!"

Liara breathed heavily.

Despite the heady sensation that coursed through her body, her sharp, perceptive mind still worked, and it worked good.

She knew what was going on; she may have been young, but she was far from an idiot. She may have preferred solitude, but that didn't mean that she hadn't had a share of however brief liaisons in her 106 years.

So, yes, she knew the game. She knew that she was being seduced…

But this… with _both_ of them at once! Goddess – _**that**_ was something she had never experienced before! That was something she had never even _heard_ of before.

Yet to be ensnared between the two of them, like this, felt just… right.

"Jaina… Marcus…" she spoke slowly, somberly, surfacing briefly from the haze of arousal as she measured her words. "What is this?" she asked softly, leaning back into where Jaina was nuzzling into the crook of her neck, right behind her small ear. "What is… _this_ we're doing? Please… I need to know."

There was a brief, silent pause.

"You already know," Jaina replied softly, somberly.

A shudder went through Liara's spine, her eyes closing.

"Yes… I know," she admitted breathily after a moment. "But… Goddess… it's not… I have never felt like this," Liara whispered. "I don't know what this all is that we are doing, Jaina. You… the _two_ of you. I… I don't know how to react…"

"Do you like it?" Jaina asked softly.

Liara released a heavy breath. "Yes…"

"And we like it too," Jaina said, speaking for Marcus. "And that's all that matters. We may or may not do anything if we so wish. This is just three good friends enjoying each other's intimate company."

Liara bit her lower lip. "Goddess… I want to make that work. I don't want to make a mistake. Tell me… tell me what to do."

"Take a look," Jaina said simply. "Marcus's mind is right there for you. And, once you meld, my mind will hopefully be drawn in like before and be opened to you as well. All you need to do is take a look."

Liara took a deep breath and steadied herself. It all felt surreal. It felt too good to be true. But she wanted this. She wanted this so badly that next to Jaina's words and her own desires, all that was left was to act on her instinct.

She raised her hands, placing them on the side of Marcus's head, and relaxed, letting all of the sensations flow through her like she was in the center of it all. And then she opened her darkened eyes.

" _Embrace Eternity!_ "

Like being dunked into a lake of fire, Marcus's and Jaina's presences washed over Liara like a tidal wave. It bathed her, surged around her, blanketed her like a magnificent cover that made all her nerves tingle and her own presence surge and rise up to entwine between theirs.

Their presences were powerful, omnipresent, making her mind moan in undiluted ecstasy as she sank deeper, the tendrils of her mind spreading welcomingly into every nook and cranny of the other two's minds even as their own so satisfyingly penetrated hers.

Then, the ethereal feeling began to abate, giving rise to their first clear thoughts.

For the first time, Marcus and Jaina became aware of the overwhelmingly good sensations that Liara felt as she sat entrapped between them – both the sensations of their bodies pressed together and the fuzzy, arousing and downright sexy emotions that bubbled deep in her being. And Liara, in turn, felt both of Marcus's and Jaina's desire for her, the attraction the two humans felt for her, the arousal itself.

It was like a revelation, making the three of them sink even deeper into each other's minds, probing and seeking, like tongues dancing in a deep French kiss seeking every nook and cranny, and being perfectly welcome to do so, each of their minds welcome to the other two.

They had clicked together like cogs perfectly designed for each other.

Driven by the desire to share, they sought out each other's hidden depths, revealing secrets, images of their hidden desires for each other, and the actions they did to sate them fluttered clearly across their minds. Being pulled deep into both Marcus's and Jaina's memories, Liara witnessed some of the two humans' most intimate moments together, both old and recent, and she was welcome to seek out everything in great detail, almost like she was the one reliving it, and Marcus and Jaina, in turn, sought out and saw Liara's memories and attractions to the two of them, culminating in the couple of nights of explosive self-inflicted pleasure.

Whispers. Gasps. None of it physical. Understanding. Encouragement. Acceptance… Content.

A sense of absolute contentment spread across the three; content and acceptance, and not a small amount of excitement and the good kind of butterflies – almost like a post-orgasmic bliss and the cuddly, fuzzy sensations of being held close.

They stayed there for what seemed like a very long time before their singular mind decided it was enough, and had Liara guide them out of the meld.

They slowly began to surface, their thoughts and senses very slowly retreating back into their respective bodies, like small and soft kisses and pecks that would follow any deep French kiss, giving the final sense of contentment to the ending of the joining.

Liara opened her eyes, and met Marcus's eyes boldly, even though her cheeks felt hot from the blush that seemed to have become a constant. She felt Jaina's cheek pressing against hers comfortably from over her shoulder, the human woman's hands gently roaming up and down her flanks, while Marcus's strong hands were caressing her hips and thighs. She breathed deeply, almost laboriously, as she lowered her hands from Marcus's head, slowly trailing them down his neck to rest on his pectorals.

"By the Goddess," she spoke softly. "That was amazing."

" _You_ were amazing," Marcus murmured softly.

Liara spent a moment silent, working her thoughts as she breathed deeply, urging her hummingbird heartbeat to slow down.

"I had wanted this," she almost whispered as her hands trailed across Marcus's collar bones and as she cuddled her cheek against Jaina's. "I had wanted this almost since the first time I met you… but I knew that I couldn't have you. You were married to each other, for Goddess's sake." She chuckled ruefully. "I thought I was crazy. There I was, not only attracted to one human but both at the same time. I berated myself, asking myself how was it even possible to be attracted to two other people at the same time… Yet, still, I was _so drawn_ to you that it invaded my waking thoughts… And now, to know that both of you actually had these feelings for me as well…"

"We are glad, too," Jaina murmured into her ear as she nuzzled into her neck, hugging her tighter. "We knew you were interested in us. In Marcus, more so; but we hoped your interest went further than just because he interacted with Prothean Beacon. And now we know."

"… I admit," Liara spoke reluctantly, in an apologetic way, "at first I was intrigued by Marcus because of the Beacon. But it evolved very quickly into something more, for both him and you, Jaina. Seeing you both in the field, the way you lead… you're confident, quick-witted, you dominate the battlefield and people around you. They _want_ to listen to you. It was so easy to become attracted to both of you. I couldn't understand it. And then, when we had that first mind meld, it… it opened up my eyes. I couldn't keep you out of my head anymore."

"Trust us, the feeling was mutual," Marcus replied with a chuckle.

Liara gently shook her head in wonder.

"But why?" she tried understanding. "What could it possibly be that you find attractive in me? Both of you are warriors, yet I am just a reclusive scientist. You two are fire and passion, sweeping undauntedly through the thickest of battles with absolute confidence, whereas I had always been calm, logical, flowing calmly through life like a river. How could we be attracted to each other?"

"Because people are not thoughtless elements," Jaina said. "A person that is fire needs to be tempered by water or it will burn out. And water needs to be warmed by fire or it will freeze up. _That_ is why the two of us feel so right when we're with you; why we have clicked so well together. You are something that keeps both of us rooted… something that tempers us."

Liara chuckled. "Looks like you have a bit of a matriarch's wisdom between the two of you."

"Stick around," Marcus said. "You'll see that we're full of surprises."

A ghost of a smile was creeping onto Liara's lips. "I know that," she said. "But there was no way I could have known then that it would be appropriate to act on my feelings." She closed her eyes, taking a deep, laborious breath. "I didn't want you to think that I'm like so many other young asari."

"And you've already proven that you're much better than that," Marcus stated firmly. "You're smart, intelligent, perceptive. Pretty girls are a dime a dozen. But real smarts?" He shook his head. "That is rare. And nothing trumps that."

An involuntary smile tugged at the corner of Liara's lips before it spread into a full, thousand-watt smile.

"He always knew what to say to a girl," Jaina murmured in Liara's ear as she looked at him.

"Well, as much as I'm grateful for the compliment, that still doesn't tell me what to do now," Liara said. "Doesn't tell me how to act; how to… reconcile _this_ – this three-way relationship – with everything that I had been taught of how relationship should work… Of what society would say."

"Do you trust us?" Marcus asked, giving a supportive squeeze to her thighs.

Liara merely nodded, but her gaze was firmly on his, and volumes were being spoken through it.

"Then you do not have to worry about anything," he said. "Whatever bad things people might want to say, they'll have to say it to my face. And I don't think they'll be able to deal with the aftermath very well."

Liara laughed airily. "It's not the protector I need, Marcus," she said, then sighed contently. "What I need is time to process this revelation. I don't want to bulrush into it blinded by my emotions and desires. I need to make my consciousness come to terms with my feelings. I want… I _need_ to make this work."

Marcus and Jaina were silent for a couple of moments, just giving a gentle, supportive squeeze to Liara's waist.

"Very well, if that's how you feel," Marcus nodded supportively, and Jaina then stood up, releasing Liara from where she was comfortably trapped between them. Almost immediately, Liara felt a sense of loss.

"Hey," Marcus said softly, cupping her chin and making her look at him. "I can sense what you're feeling; my new abilities make it so. It's alright. Jaina and I are here, any time of the day, and we'll stay open to this no matter what. So, don't start feeling as if it's a loss or anything like that."

Liara smiled softly and nodded, and then stood up from his lap, sharing a smile with Jaina, the other woman squeezing her hand.

"I may take some time to sort these feelings of mine," she said, "But that doesn't mean that you two should be strangers by any stretch. My doors are always open and welcome for both of you – at any time of the day or night."

"That's good to know," Jaina said, then leaned in closer. "And by the way…"

She then leaned closely and whispered a few things into Liara's ear. The girl blushed a deep blue, her breath quickening.

"I-I'll remember that," Liara said with a slight stammer when Jaina finished, a big smile breaking through on her features before turned and walked out of their quarters, her hips swaying quite a bit more seductively.

Before Marcus could speak up to ask what was that all about from where he sat, Jaina turned and pounced on him like a tigress, driving her tongue deep into his mouth and grinding her crotch into his with need as he cupped the back of her head with one hand, pulling her into a deeper kiss, and grasped her buttocks with the other, keeping her pressed tightly against him.

After a long minute of tongue-wrenching pleasure, Marcus grabbed her by the hair on the back of her head, and with a final deep kiss, pulled her face off of him with a resounding and delicious smack of their lips.

He looked at her face. Her usually luscious lips were slightly puffy from kissing, and she gazed at him with half-lidded lust-filled eyes from behind the bangs of her red hair that fell over her face as she panted. She smiled coyly at him as she kept grinding her crotch against his, her need and desire palpable to his newly developed Prothean senses, images of what she wanted to do, what she wanted to be done to her flashing clearly in the back of his head, and all that time a very clear naked figure of a certain asari writhed there along with her.

He licked his lips, enjoying the taste of their mixed saliva as he swallowed, and then spoke:

"What did you whisper to Liara before she left?" he growled through a smile.

She smirked down at him. "I told her that she is _very_ welcome to use the memories she saw in our heads of us having all those crazy sex adventures for her own pleasure, whenever she felt like it."

"You sly little minx," he chuckled with a shake of his head before he pulled her in for another resounding wet kiss. "You're messing with the poor girl's head, manipulating her closer and closer."

"And that's why you love me," she said.

They dove into another deep and lasting kiss before she pulled away.

"Well?" she demanded breathlessly. "Are you going to just sit there, or are you going to fuck me senseless already?"

He growled gutturally, lifting her up by the buttocks as she hooked her arms around his neck and legs around his waist, kissing deeply as he carried her off to their bed and threw her down on it, and then dove right in after her. They resumed kissing, as she pawed and pulled at his clothes, relieving him of his shirt and undershirt in quick succession, before she flipped them both over so that she was on top. She dove in, kissing his strong pectorals, her tongue boldly exploring the taste and texture of his skin, flicking it teasingly against his nipple and nipping gently with her teeth, with an occasional bite thrown in on the firm muscle flesh as she descended down and down, unbuckling and unzipping his trousers along the way.

He went for her shirt to pull it off, but she stopped him and pinned his arms to the bed, urging him with her look to keep them there. When he complied, Jaina stood up from the bed with a coy smile and began a slow and sensuous striptease. Despite the drab navy uniform, as she undulated sensuously, her clothes leaving her body in cadence with her motions, baring one inch of her perfect skin at a time in the rhythm of some inaudible music, and exuding primal female sexuality with her every motion, the sight would have even cured impotence.

Bit by bit, inch-by inch, the clothes disappeared, until she stood before him completely nude, displaying her shapely athletic body, both toned and voluptuous at the same time, in all its divine goddess-like glory for his eyes to feast on as much as he liked. She knelt on the bed and then advanced on her hands and knees toward him like a prowling feline until she reached his waist, and released his hard member into the open air. It stood firmly and proudly, pointing toward her as she caressed it teasingly, racking her nails gently over it as she licked her lips hungrily. She looked up at him then and spoke:

"Now. For the rest of the evening. I want you to think of Liara. I want you to imagine all of the things you are going to do to her. To both of us. What you want _me_ to do to her under your instructions. And I want to hear you say it all."

And then she lowered her head and engulfed his firm member with her lips.

And he told her everything.

* * *

Liara had left Marcus's and Jaina's quarters with a hot haze clouding her mind that she fought valiantly to contain. Sounds of the crew deck and the people who occupied it was barely reaching out to her. Her mind was fully occupied with something else.

It was as if all of her fantasies were coming true. The meld was so deep, so frank and open that she had read everything there was about who Marcus and Jaina were, what kind of people, and what mattered to them the most. All about them was revealed. But also, everything they felt about her was revealed as well – the attraction they felt to her, the reason for that attraction, the things they liked about her the most and the image they held of her.

 _Goddess,_ she thought. _Do they really think all those things about me?_

But what held her head clouded in a haze of heat the most were the erotic images that had flooded her mind. She had accidentally caught glimpses of it during their first meld, but this time, Marcus and Jaina had consciously revealed everything for her to see. The scenes she had seen were dirty, tawdry, and downright kinky and filled with debauchery, but…

She sighed, enamored.

But the amount of love and trust that the two humans had had for each other while doing all those things was beyond anything she had ever believed possible. She smiled then; she believed one thing for certain, though. As soon as she was in her quarters, her doors would be locked, her clothes would be off, and she would be bringing herself off _repeatedly_ to the memory of Marcus's and Jaina's sexual adventures until she fainted!

* * *

Doctor Chakwas raised her head from the novel she was reading to see the young asari scientist walk through the medbay doors. She was about to speak up and ask Liara whether she had found everything in order during the meld with Marcus but stopped when she took a closer look at her.

The girl had had a blissful smile on her face, and her eyes were filled with complete and utter lust. There was no hiding such a thing from someone like her; the good doctor had been young once, and age only gave her superior perspective. The young asari seemed to be completely oblivious to anything that might have been around her as she wordlessly went into her quarters and locked the doors behind her.

Karin chuckled mirthfully.

"Those two commanders are incorrigible," she said.

…


	26. Chapter 26 - Family

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _Thank you all for your amazing and encouraging reviews! Here's a new chapter to show my appreciation, and it's an extra-long one._

 _This chapter is not my usual fare, but I had a burning need to write it. I just felt a need to make a Tribute to the little things of Mass Effect, and this chapter is just that. The topic and focal point of this chapter, well… I don't think that anyone has ever thought of writing about this particular thing – which is why I'm confident that you're going to enjoy it!_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 15.7.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes, Intrigue, Romance, and a lotta attempted_ _ **humor**_ _in this particular chapter…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 26 – Family**

.

" _Greetings, Commander Shepard,_ " the man's voice spoke from the other side of the line. " _I represent a party interested in obtaining information on Cerberus activities, primarily pertaining to the information found in the bases that you had raided."_

Marcus shared a look with Jaina who stood right next to him before the briefing room's comm system.

"Are you some kind of a comedian?" Marcus asked as they looked back at the console. "Nobody who's serious would contact us like this without any authorized credentials."

There was a pause.

" _I assure you this is no prank call, Commander,_ " the man replied. " _The fact that I have, in fact, established a direct, no-proxy contact with the Normandy should tell you as much. The party I represent is a very serious player on the galactic scene._ "

"Even more of a reason not to have this conversation with you," Jaina replied with an icy chill in her voice. "Cerberus was performing illegal and unethical experimentations in various fields. Do you think an Alliance soldier would be crazy enough to give this information to just anyone, let alone someone who claims to be _a so-called_ 'big player'?"

" _Be reasonable, Commander,_ " the man spoke. " _What are you going to do with the information you have on Cerberus anyway? Both the Alliance and the Council are going to just file it away in some archive; but no secret stays hidden forever, as you well know. Eventually, someone somewhere will deliver it into our hands. It might as well be you! And we would compensate you quite generously for it!_ "

Marcus narrowed his eyes.

"You work for the Shadow Broker, don't you?" he demanded authoritatively in a manner that brooked no argument.

A pause.

" _Very astute of you, Comm –"_

"I'm surprised you people have the balls to call me after that stunt you pulled on Illium!" Marcus interrupted brusquely.

Another short pause.

" _I am aware of the supposed incident, but I assure you, Commander, that we had nothing to do with it_ ," the man said.

"You're getting on my nerves, little man," Marcus interrupted him with a deep, cold, deathly growl. "Do not try to act innocent. We know _exactly_ what you tried to pull. Now, piss off! And don't call us again."

" _That is unf –_ "

Marcus broke the link, cutting him off.

"Can you believe this guy?" he asked in a mix of incredulity and anger as he turned to look at Jaina.

She snorted. "Tell me about it!"

"Well, one thing is for certain: that information is _not_ leaving this ship any time soon," he said as he turned back toward the center of the briefing room.

Ashley, who sat with other members of the ground specialist team around the room, spoke up:

"Sir, if I may be so bold to say…" she waited for a moment until Marcus nodded. "Wouldn't Alliance's experts be much faster in decrypting this data?"

"Frankly, Ash, I don't trust the Alliance's ability to keep this data hidden one damn bit," Marcus said. "Cerberus was infiltrated within the Alliance. They know their inner protocols. Remember, a squad of Kahoku's N3-s was sent to their deaths by fabricated orders that everybody thought was Alliance and that nobody could trace after they discovered it wasn't. I have no guarantee that they wouldn't be able to repeat that stunt and have this data disappear before it is properly decrypted." He shook his head. "So, no, this data is only safe here, with us."

"Huh… makes sense when you put it that way," Ashley mused, her expression deeply troubled.

"And what about the Council?" Kaidan asked.

"That would be unwise as well," Liara spoke up. "Several of my sources have confirmed independently from one another that Shadow Broker has an uncanny ability to appropriate information, even from the most classified locations."

"She's right," Wrex rumbled. "Shadow Broker had dealings with Saren, and I know for a _fact_ that he was not the first, nor the only Spectre that had dealings with him. And Spectres have access to _everything_."

"The bottom line is that the safest place for this data is here, right on this ship," Jaina finished. "At least until we figure out exactly what's in the files."

"Where do we stand with that?" Marcus asked, looking at Tali.

"I'm afraid it's not much at the moment, Commander," she said. "Cerberus used multi-level encryption methods. Certain memory banks have triple-layer protection, and it will take a lot of time. But, I've managed to decrypt the surface access documents, and low-priority communication logs were in there as well."

"And I had already begun sifting through them," Liara added. "Most of it seems like mundane conversations, but I've begun running it through several correlating apps nonetheless; you never know if someone had let something slip in one message that can be correlated with another.

"One of those messages, however, contained something that drew my immediate attention," she continued, tapping out a command on the datapad she carried and transferring the accompanying data onto the large screen above the briefing room's console.

Marcus and Jaina spent a moment reading the info side-by-side.

"This looks like a general warning to Cerberus high-level personnel that someone is killing their people," Marcus said.

"It was a high-priority message that was apparently sent through the entire Cerberus internal network, so its encryption protocols were only basic – most likely to accommodate the fact that different cells use different methods of encryption," Liara said. "That is the reason we managed to decrypt it almost instantly."

"It says that the message calls out to all personnel that worked on the same project, something called ' _Project Arrakis'_ ," Jaina said as she read the data, then seemed to think. "Hmm… that name rings a bell for some reason."

"Dune," Kaidan said, drawing attention to him. "It's from a series of fictional novels from the twentieth century. Arrakis is a desert planet that produces a special exotic substance and is a home of gigantic sand-burrowing worms. Very similar to thresher maws."

"That's what I have found very quickly as well," Liara said, inclining her head, "but that didn't give me anything to go on. What did, however, was when I correlated the names of the mentioned scientists with their known locations over the previous years and decades. I have found only one single instance where they worked together, but it was apparently on an Alliance project ABEE – Akuze Biolife Exploration and Experimentation – back in 2177."

The mention of Akuze brought both Marcus's and Jaina's attention.

"Akuze," he rumbled slowly, then nodded. "I believe I remember the mentions of ABEE during the briefing before I was sent there. It was supposed to be a pioneering team that was to be attached to the colony." He hummed, narrowing his eyes as he looked down and to the side. "The briefing for the mission stated that we were supposed to secure the terrain for the arrival of ABEE team on the planet, but mid-way there, we received intel that the colony went dark and the mission parameters got switched to search and rescue."

Liara frowned.

"ABEE's arrival?" she asked, then shook her head. "That doesn't make sense, Commander. According to the data I have here, ABEE was on Akuze long before that; they were functioning for at least a year before the incident!"

There was silence around the team until Garrus spoke up grimly:

"This sounds like too much of a coincidence, Shepard. ABEE team already being there? And all of the scientists in that team also being members of Cerberus project " _Arrakis_ " – which coincidently alludes to gigantic burrowing worms?" He shook his head. "This smells. If I were you, I'd follow up on this through Alliance channels. If ABEE was truly Alliance's project, someone would know more."

"And I fully intend to do so," Marcus said grimly, then looked at Liara. "Do you have something else concerning this?"

"Yes," Liara said, nodding toward the data on the main screen as she scrolled it down. "Almost all of the scientists that worked on the project were killed, but there are two more scientists on that list that are still alive. One is on Shanxi, and the other is on Ontarom."

"Very well," Marcus said. "I'll contact Hackett and see if this pans out. Hang on."

He promptly turned and tapped a few commands on the console. He watched for several seconds as the indication showed connection being established, and then waited while the phone rang on the other end.

" _Commander Shepard,_ " came a raspy voice of Admiral Hackett a few moments later. " _To what do I owe the pleasure?"_

"Is this line secure?" Marcus asked without preamble.

There was a moment before a low-pitched scrambling sound was heard in the background.

" _It is now,_ " Hackett said, his tone grave. _"What is this about, Commander?"_

"Before I continue, I need you to know that I have found evidence that Alliance's internal security is compromised, and will refrain from talking details even over this comms," he said. "I am fully willing to disclose all the intel, but first I need some intel in return."

Hackett was silent for a heartbeat. " _Go on…_ "

"I am looking for any and all information on Alliance project ABEE, Akuze Biolife Exploration and Experimentation, done during the course of 2177," Marcus said. "Specifically, I need the names of the scientists and their current locations."

There was a short pause on the other end.

" _This is a doubly-strange coincidence that you're calling me about this, Commander,_ " Hackett said. " _Alliance internal security bureau has recently been investigating a series of incidents concerning those very same scientist's you've mentioned. Somebody has been killing them._ "

"I'm aware," Marcus said. "I need those men for intel they might have. Sir, are these men Alliance?"

" _No, and hadn't been for years,"_ Hackett replied. " _But tabs had been kept on them since they were apparently part of some sensitive projects. The problem is that they'd gone to ground a year or so back. Whoever was doing these killings was_ _ **fast**_ _and knew who he was targeting. We had realized the connection only a few hours ago ourselves, but there was almost nothing we could do since we didn't know where they are and had too little time to track them down after we found out."_

"Commander Shepard, Jaina, speaking," Jaina declared her presence through the comms. "How spaced apart are these killings?"

" _Seven days including today,_ " Hackett replied. " _Roughly evenly spaced._ "

" _Including_ today?" Marcus wondered. "Our independent sources state that Doctors Zhang and Wayne are still alive."

" _Not anymore,_ " Hackett replied with a slightly urgent tone. " _Zhang was killed early this morning. They've found her body not two hours ago. Wayne is the last one alive, but as I said, we have no idea where he is._ "

"We do," Marcus replied. "But if it's all the same, I'd rather keep it under wraps."

" _The security leaks,_ " Hackett stated in understanding.

"Sir, this links to Cerberus," Marcus replied. "The information I have points to all those scientists as being active members of that organization, and that an unknown third party is actually doing the killings. And furthermore, while apparently being members of Alliance project ABEE, they were also members of Cerberus project " _Arrakis_ " – at the same span of time, and on the same location: Akuze! This is more than a coincidence!"

There was a longer pause.

" _Are you telling me that Cerberus was piggybacking their projects within Alliance projects themselves?_ " was an incredulous question.

"Looks like," Marcus replied grimly. "If they did that under our noses, it makes you wonder what else is going on that we don't know." He sighed. "Admiral, I'm on this. Believe me. I have a very _personal_ interest in this mission."

" _Very well, Commander. You've given me something to consider as well when it comes to our Intelligence and Internal Security branches. Hackett out_."

Marcus tapped the button, ending the call, and then manipulated the display into that of the smaller version of the CIC's Galaxy map. He zoomed into the Kepler Verge, Newton system, and then brought up the planet Ontarom onto the main display. A lush blue and green world was shown to them, with several points of interest marked out on one of its continents, and the moon in a decaying orbit.

"Joker," Marcus spoke up into the comms, "set a course for Kepler Verge, Newton system, planet Ontarom."

" _Aye-aye, Commander,_ " Joker replied. " _ETA: three hours."_

Jaina spoke up: "The Alliance has a huge military communications hub on the planet, right where that big mark is. There are four civilian settlements in its rough proximity. Wayne could be in any one of them."

"Comms," Marcus called, "send a message to Alliance Command on that planet. Tell them we need assistance in locating one Doctor Simon Wayne. Here's his profile."

"Received and acknowledged, Commander," the comms operator replied. "Sending the message now."

"Good," Marcus replied, then looked at the rest of his ground team. "Our goal here is extraction. We want this man alive, and not for the purpose of just saving him from whoever's after him. We want him for the information he has. We will reconvene at," he glanced at the time. "12:15, some twenty minutes before we land on Ontarom. Until then, dismissed!"

* * *

.

Two and a half hours later, the Normandy exited FTL in the Newton system right on schedule, with Joker swiftly directing it toward Ontarom. The ground team had already begun their preparations, armoring and arming up with practiced efficiency. Marcus and Jaina were ahead of the rest in that department, and the two Commanders were already directing the CIC operations in full battle gear.

"Sir, we're receiving an incoming transmission from Ontarom," the comms operator called. "It's from Alliance Major Rossi, stationed groundside.

"Put him through," Marcus called from his place at the command platform. The indication flashed on his display, and he promptly pressed the button. "This is Commander Marcus Shepard of the SSV Normandy."

" _Major Luciano Rossi,_ " the man replied from the other side. " _We've performed necessary investigations, Commander. We have confirmed that Dr. Wayne really is on Ontarom. The latest data we have puts him in the largest civilian settlement, Meridian. Apparently, he has a lab in the outskirts of town, where he works with a few other scientists, but we don't have much else. I'm sending all the data now._ "

Marcus's console chirped in confirmation.

"Glad that you could help, Major," he said.

" _The pleasure is all mine, Commander. I have taken the liberty of warning the civilian authorities in Meridian. The city police will provide assistance. Will you require assistance from the ground forces as well?_ "

"Once this is through, we will need a pickup shuttle. The fifth fleet will send a ship for a detainee of importance."

" _I'll make the necessary arrangements. Rossi out._ "

Marcus ended the comm link and shared a nod with Jaina.

"Pressly, you have the conn," she called as she walked together with Marcus out of the CIC.

"Yes, ma'am!"

She then tapped the comms and spoke, "Ground team to the cargo bay. Prepare for combat operations."

* * *

.

Some twenty-five minutes later, the Normandy had gently glided into Ontarom's atmosphere, leveling out at some one thousand meters above ground and dislodging the two hover assault vehicles out of its cargo bay. After the most recent modifications, Jaina's Hover-Mako now sported the new and improved main gun, just like the one Marcus piloted.

Now fully dubbed 'Scorpions' by the Normandy's team, the two vehicles stormed through the air toward the town of Meridian as the Normandy changed its vector into a climb out of the atmosphere. Verdant forests, meadows and crystal-clear rivers were streaming beneath them, numerous herds and flocks of native ground and flying animals were running away from the roaring sound of their thrusters. In the distance, the town could be seen. It was sitting at a perfect tri-point where forested mountains, a large lake, and vast arable plains were meeting, and they were approaching it quickly.

"Commander!" Kaidan called from where he monitored the comm traffic, "The Meridian Police Department is reporting a firefight with an unknown group of hostiles right at the edge of town where Wayne's lab should be. They say it looks like a mercenary group."

"We're coming up on town now!" Jaina called, and the two vehicles stormed over the large cluster of prefab buildings, slowing down as they approached the edge of town.

Clear signs of firefight could be seen as the rounds flashed back and forth near a separated cluster of buildings.

"That's an MT-12, medium-sized transport shuttle," Garrus pointed out. "It has guns rigged on the outside. That must be merc's transport. There might be as many as forty of them in there!"

"The local police can't possibly stop that many of them if they are well armed!" Ashley called frantically.

"Then we whittle them down from above!" Marcus called and directed his vehicle into a down-turned vertical hover.

Jaina's Scorpion followed suit, and a second later, the two assault vehicles began launching round after round straight into clusters of enemy mercs, raining thunderous explosions with impunity.

In less than twenty seconds, it was over – a testament to the destructive power that the new cannons had.

"Sensors: clear!" Tali reported.

"Well, that was kinda anti-climactic," Wrex muttered. "I was expecting more fight."

"Don't get your hopes down just yet," Marcus called, "I bet ya a million creds there'll still be more of them in the building! Let's get down there!"

"Hmpf! No bet," Wrex barked in return as the two vehicles angled down.

The Scorpions descended with speed and precision, touching down right in front of the police cruisers with Marcus's and Jaina's team promptly dropping out of their vehicles and quickly trotting up to the ragged police lines.

"Who's in charge here?!" Marcus called, sweeping across the police personnel.

"That'd be me!" a middle aged man called, stowing his Mattock onto his back. "Sergeant Bezdek!"

"Commander Shepard!" Marcus replied. "How many hostiles are hiding in the buildings?"

"Maybe half a dozen, no more than eight, I recon, and they're all in that building there," the Sergeant pointed out. "That's the doctor's lab!"

"Secure the perimeter and follow behind us!" Marcus ordered. "My team will take care of the remaining mercs!"

"Roger that!" The sergeant replied and started hollering orders to his men, with a dozen of them immediately moving to follow the Normandy's team.

Marcus led them across the thoroughly obliterated grounds, noticing quite a few mercs still alive and moaning through their wounds. With a quick signal of his hand, he directed police sergeant and his men to secure the injured hostiles, before directing his and Jaina's team into a tactical breach of the dwelling.

They quickly passed through the doors and fanned out, fully expecting resistance. Instead, the large anteroom only held five mercenaries – their weapons already on the floor, and hands high in the air where everyone could see them.

"Don't shoot, Jesus Christ! We surrender!" one of them hollered almost desperately. "We didn't get paid to wage war against heavy artillery!"

"On your knees, hands behind your head!" Garrus directed them as he approached, aiming at them from his N7 Striker. The mercs complied, and a couple of police officers hustled in to secure their hands behind their backs.

"Is that all of you?" Marcus demanded from the mercs. "Is there anyone else?"

"Only Toombs!" one of them replied jerking his head toward one of the chamber's exits. "The crazy son of a bitch went after the doctor. He's the leader of all this. He's the one that hired us!"

Marcus turned his head and called his people: "On me!"

The team advanced out of the room, through the short hallway, until they entered into a large laboratory where they quickly fanned out, guns raised toward the sole occupants of the large chamber. Two men stood near the center of it – Doctor Wayne, wearing a typical lab coat, and an armored man behind him, pinning the doctor against him with a forearm around his neck. A syringe was in his other hand, and the needle was already shoved in Wayne's neck, the injection button needing only a single tap of Toombs's finger.

"That's close enough!" Toombs called out at Marcus's approaching team.

Marcus raised his fist, halting his team, without lowering his aim.

"Good. Now stay back; I've got no grief with you," Toombs called, his voice and demeanor incredibly calm for the first few moments.

But then, his eyes widened maniacally and he bared his teeth in an almost bestial snarl.

"No, no, It's this little motherfucking motherfucker that I want," he growled, shaking the doctor bodily. "Oh, yeah, Wayne. You and I are gonna have a lot of fun together! _Lots_ of fun."

"Please!" Wayne cried. "He's a madman! Mr. Toombs, you're insane, you need help!"

Toombs laughed out loud, his voice raspy and deathly like something you'd expect from a zombie.

"It's Corporal Toombs for you, Wayne! Corporal Lionel Toombs of the 108th," he said. "And you're damn right I'm insane Wayne! Wouldn't you be insane if you were held prisoner for six years and made into a lab rat, like you did to me, hm? WOULDN'T YOU?!" he roared, shaking Wayne.

"Aargh! No, I don't know what you're talking about!" Wayne cried. "I-I've never seen you bef –"

"SHUT UP!" Toombs roared, then whispered maniacally. "You don't get to lie, Wayne. Not today. Do you know what this syringe is, hm? This is thresher maw acid. Uh-huh. The same. Thing. You kept injecting me with back when you held me imprisoned. Except that I have diluted this one; we wouldn't want you to die quickly, now would we?"

"Injecting you with Thresher Maw acid?" Ashley called out incredulously. "That's impossible! A human cannot possibly survive a thresher –"

She immediately cut off when Marcus raised his hand. Toombs took closer attention to the commander. He couldn't see anything behind Marcus's plated mask, but they could all see that Marcus had already lowered his rifle and straightened. He then slowly reached up, unclasping his helm and removing it completely, revealing his face.

For a moment, Toombs was silent, searching Marcus's face.

"Shepard…" he spoke slowly after a moment. "I rembember you!"

"And I remember you too, Toombs," Marcus replied somberly. "I remember."

"He was with you in 108th," Jaina said, the only one recognizing one of her husband's old posts. "I thought there were no other survivors!"

"And so did I," Marcus said as he looked at Toombs, his eyes narrowed as he worked through his shock. "I thought you were dead, Toombs. I saw the thresher maw strike you with its acid bone spike! Even if you somehow survived being impaled, no human should survive that acid."

Toombs laughed raspily.

"Yeah," he said. "Except that I did. The bone spike impaled me but missed all the internal organs and arteries. And acid? Well…" he chuckled mirthlessly. "It turns out that I have a rare genetic mutation. It makes my flesh almost immune to thresher maw acid. Can you believe it?" He chuckled darkly. "Because I couldn't. But these guys convinced me of it pretty quickly. You see, Shepard, this son of a bitch and his cronies are a part of a group called Cerberus – a real nasty rogue organization that likes to experiment on people under the guise of being Alliance."

"I know," Marcus said softly. "I personally led this team in eliminating some of their bases."

Toombs smiled in pleasant surprise and, for the first time, the smile seemed to reach his eyes. "Yeah? Good man. _Good_ man! You see, it was Cerberus that's responsible for that attack on Akuze. They were experimenting with ways to direct thresher maws to attack who they wanted. They had installed a control chip into the beast while it was still young. Don't ask me how the crazy bastards did it, but they did. Our unit was to be the test subject. The victim. I guess I should applaud you for managing to drive the beast away, eh? You gave it enough pain to override the whip of its masters! Hehehe. That in itself is a good balm, even though I couldn't make it outta there."

"Toombs, I…" Marcus trailed off, clenching his teeth, not knowing what to say. "If I knew you were alive, if I knew where you were, I would have come back for you."

Toombs made a grimace. "I don't blame you, Shepard! If I was in your shoes, I'd have fled without looking back! The ones I do blame are _these,_ " he intoned, twisting the syringe around, the needle rolling painfully through Wayne's neck, making him wail.

"These fucktards," Toombs continued. "Instead of helping me like decent human beings, they imprisoned me! I awoke in a prison cell, behind impenetrable glass. They were _delighted_ I've survived!" he said, grotesquely mimicking the scientist's delight for emphasis.

"They realized that my body was highly resistant to thresher maw acid. They wanted to do experiments on me in order to use the data to make a supersoldier. Do you know what it's like to have thresher maw acid in your veins? Well, I do. See, the fact that the mutation makes me highly resistant to it doesn't mean that it still doesn't hurt like hell. And when it gets into your blood, it will spread out and get to every pain receptor in your body. Every. Single. One."

Doctor Wayne cried out angrily:

"You can't prove any of this! This man is delusional! I demand you give me a fair trial!"

Marcus unlatched his heavy pistol and leveled it at Wayne's head.

"All I'm inclined to give you is a bullet to the head, _doctor_ ," Marcus said coldly. "And as a Spectre, I'd perfectly get away with it."

Wayne gaped like a fish, too stunned to say anything.

"You hear that, Doctor?" Toombs chuckled. "Everybody agrees that you deserve to die. You deserve to die for what you did to me, to Shepard – to everyone in our old unit! So, how about it, Commander? Will you let me inject him? To let him see what it is like?"

"Trust me, I wouldn't want anything more," Marcus replied grimly. "But I need him alive."

Toombs grimaced. "Oh, you're _not_ about to tell me how he needs a fair trial," he warned.

"Trial?" Marcus murmured. "Who ever said anything about a trial? This man was Cerberus. He might even still be. And that means that he has information about them – information that I want."

Toombs sighed. "Yeah, I get it," he said bitterly. "But I can tell you outright that it's not gonna work. While imprisoned, I picked up a thing or two; these fuckers here work in cells. They're isolated from one another. The only thing this guy would know is his own cell. And I've _killed_ everyone from it already. You won't find out anything."

"No, I will," Marcus said confidently. "And do you wanna know why?" Toombs looked at him questioningly. "Because keeping it within the cell cannot work perfectly. It can never work perfectly because they're only human. I guarantee that he has picked up a thing or two. He knows a thing or two. And that however minor knowledge might just be enough for me to correlate it with everything else I have and draw the big picture – you know how it is."

Toombs was silent for a moment. "Yeah," he said bitterly. "I know how it is."

"Hey," Marcus called out to him, a deathly smirk hovering on his lips. "Don't feel bad about relinquishing him to us. After all, he's about to be interrogated by some highly specialized interrogation experts. Truth be told, you killing him with that acid would have been a mercy for what they're about to do to him – you know how it is."

A smile tugged at the corner of Toombs's lips, then spread into a broad grin as the rich laughter bubbled out from his throat.

"Yeah," he said. "I know how it is."

The man slowly retracted the syringe out of Wayne's neck and shoved the doctor roughly toward Marcus. The doctor was welcomed by a fist to his gut, making him double over and drop on his knees, Garrus promptly approaching and securing his hands behind his back.

As the man was roughly led out, Marcus approached and placed a hand on Toombs's shoulder.

"Come on, soldier," Marcus said. "We need to take you in… but you're still Alliance. I can guarantee that the Alliance will take care of its family."

Toombs sighed heavily and nodded, letting himself be led out.

* * *

.

The ground team stood off to the side, next to the Scorpions, while Marcus and Jaina spoke with the representative authorities; the colony's police commissioner and Major Rossi were already agreeing on jurisdiction and finalizing the plans. Toombs was sitting silently in one shuttle, relieved of his weapons, and guarded by a pair of marines. Wayne was sitting locked in another one, his guards much gruffer and mean-looking. They had already heard the story of what Wayne did to Toombs; Wayne wasn't going to have a nice ride.

"Cerberus is infiltrated within the Alliance," Marcus spoke to Major Rossi. "We know they have the ability to fabricate orders, and there's every chance they'd try to get to Wayne – either to extract him or eliminate him – and they might try something similar to Toombs, too. The chance might be slim, but we cannot allow ourselves to be slack."

"Trust me, I know where you're coming from, Commander," Rossi replied. "Admiral Hackett has already called in; he's sending some men that he says he can trust to pick up the two men. Until then, the two will be kept with us under triple guard."

"Good to hear."

In the end, the shuttles lifted off, going straight toward the main military compound. Marcus watched as they disappeared in the distance, and took a sweeping look across the skyline of the nearby town, and the pristine surrounding lands of the New World.

"No one left behind," Jaina murmured, rubbing her hand between his shoulder blades and grimacing at the hard armor that was there. "I know meeting Toombs must've brought up some weird feelings, but you couldn't have known, okay?"

"Yeah," he agreed. He couldn't feel Jaina's hand through the armor, but he knew it was there; he knew what she wanted to do for him. "Perhaps later, when our armors are removed…"

She smiled. "You betcha!" she said and then leaned in closer. "Aaaand, I happen to know a beautiful young asari girl that would definitely _love_ providing the equal amount of comfort."

Marcus chuckled. "You're an incorrigible tease."

"You love me that way," she said.

"Yeah," he said, sharing a loving look with her. "I do."

He then turned to Major Rossi who was working out some logistics nearby and spoke up. "Major?"

"Commander?" the man turned readily.

"Is there any place here on Ontarom that a group of soldiers can just relax and unwind a bit?" he asked.

The major smiled and chuckled, scratching his chin.

"Well, the town of Meridian is not Citadel or Illium, but there's plenty of pubs, good restaurants, and a whole lotta beautiful nature all around you."

Marcus turned to look at the rest of his ground team who stood grouped nearby. "What do the rest of you think?"

Murmurs of eager assent greeted him all around.

"Sure beats the ship!"

"Better than drab rocky worlds!"

"Or toxic ones."

"There's beer!"

"And wondrous nature!"

"Yeah, we can shoot things!"

They all turned to look at Wrex pointedly.

"What?" he asked with a shrug.

Marcus and Jaina shared a smile.

"Well, that settles it," she said and tapped the comm link. "Joker, bring the Normandy down to Meridian Spaceport. We'll make this a small shore leave on Ontarom."

" _With pleasure, ma'am._ "

* * *

.

It took mere fifteen minutes for the Normandy to dock on the Meridian spaceport. Though the largest of the four settlements on Ontarom, Meridian held barely over 30000 colonists, with other three being only about half as large. Other than the main military base further south, warships rarely landed in the civilian port proper, and as such, even though the Normandy was small for a frigate, it took up a large part of the landing strip, causing a little bit of a commotion among the civilian populace.

Nonetheless, it appeared that people had a good relationship with the military. The Normandy personnel that were going out to stretch their legs and lungs on the firm soil and fresh air of Ontarom found themselves warmly welcomed. Just as the major had said, Meridian did have bars, pubs, numerous cafés, a club, a mall, and several beaches on the lake's shores, and the crew took great pleasure at utilizing every single one of them.

One part of the Normandy's ground team, however, had settled in a cozy bar-restaurant that stood on a forested slope and overlooked the lake. Unlike the majority of the buildings, this one wasn't a prefab, nor was it concrete-metal-and-glass type which was slowly beginning to make their appearance across the town. It was made out of logs on a stone-and-mortar foundation, and it had a huge shaded terrace that overlooked the lake. It was a place that any true hunter, woodsman or lumberjack would want to sit at.

"So, Marcus," Garrus spoke up as they settled themselves around the table. "Care to share a bit more about that freaky new Prothean sense that you've apparently developed?"

"Yeah," Kaidan added his voice. "I mean, it's fascinating, to say the least!"

Marcus shrugged. "I've shared most of it with you already," he said. "You know that I can read people's emotions when they are close by, I can basically 'read' from objects by touching them and find out things about the person or persons that used those objects frequently. I can even sense memories if I concentrate."

"And that's how you were reading things while we were dealing with Cerberus, right?" Wrex queried.

"Right," Marcus shrugged.

"Spirits, I wish I had had such an ability while I worked with the C-Sec," Garrus commented. "Sure, it couldn't be used as evidence, but by reading the criminal's mind, I could know where to look. Damn, I wish I had that against that bastard, Saleon."

"Hey," Marcus raised his hand placatingly. "Don't beat yourself about it. Now, you've heard Liara herself the other day: she will use her network to try to pinpoint Saleon's location. It's only a matter of time, and then we're after him."

"Yeah," Garrus nodded, perking up. "Thanks for that, Shepard."

It was at that moment that a waiter approached them – a triple B guy (big, burly and bearded) wearing jeans, boots and a lumberjack shirt.

"What can I get ya for, gentlemen?" he asked in a strong voice.

"Let me ask this first," Marcus spoke up. "Do you have turian beverages?"

"Sure do," the man nodded. "Strumgeshtus Verean. How's that?"

"You're kidding?" Garrus asked with a grin.

"No, sir," the man replied with a bigger grin.

"I'll have that then!" Garrus exclaimed.

"And bring us here three of your Mountain Bear lagers as well," Marcus added. "I wanna see what it's like."

"You got it!" the man replied and went to prepare their order.

"So, lemme get this straight," Kaidan spoke up as the waiter moved off. "You can touch a surface, and you could pick up memories of someone else who had touched that surface?"

"If it was touched often enough to leave a chemical imprint," Marcus said with a shrug.

"So, well… this table for example," Kaidan said, motioning with his hands. "Can you sense anything of it?"

Marcus smirked, tapping the table top with his palm as he began sensing.

"I sense… men laughing, talking, drinking… it's all jumbled together from all the people who ever sat here, but…" he smirked, nodding. "One thing's in common. Good times. Good times keep happening here."

The other men chuckled.

"Well, you don't need to have a Prothean sense to figure out that there were good times on this table!" Wrex spoke up. "Hell, even I can sense some things about this table myself!"

"Oh really?!" Garrus spoke up challengingly. "And what would that be?"

"Well, look at it!" Wrex said as he pounded on the surface a couple of times for emphasis and rumbled appreciatively. "It's a good, sturdy table! It's sure to support a pair of dancing krogan females with no problem – just as a table should!"

The other three men laughed out loud at that.

"Really, Wrex?" Kaidan asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. "Are females everything krogan think about?"

"What else is there to think about?" Wrex asked. "Females are the only thing that matters in this life. Which reminds me: where the heck has the female contingent of our crew disappeared to?"

"Jaina mentioned they were going to check out the town's shopping mall before heading out to check out 'other stuff'," Marcus said and shrugged.

"Really?" Kaidan raised his eyebrows. "I'm not exactly the one to stereotype people based on their species or gender, but I hadn't exactly thought that they too had a weakness for that."

"I don't know, Kaidan," Marcus said with a smirk. "We like to think of our female crewmembers as women who have elevated themselves above those stereotypes just because we're all here on an important mission to save the Galaxy. But if you think about it, here we are, the four men, waiting for the waiter to bring us our beers, while we listen to old-school rock and talk about – women! I'd call it human nature, but –" he trailed off, motioning with his hand toward Wrex and Garrus.

All four of them chuckled mirthfully.

"I assure you," Marcus continued, "as much as it might seem strange to think ' _our women_ '," and he air-quoted right there, "who fight and bleed alongside us might enjoy those silly feminine things, I say that it's quite natural and GOOD to be so. Besides, I'm pretty sure that the four of them are already commenting and talking about us right at this very moment."

..

 _About a mile away, in Meridian's shopping mall…_

Jaina, Ashley, Tali, and Liara sneezed as one.

"What the heck was that?" Jaina laughed out loud as they looked amongst each other, laughing as well.

"My filter isn't damaged, and I don't feel any fever," Tali said bemusedly.

"Meh, must be one of those strange space-magic things," Ashley brushed it off. "Anyway, where were we?"

Liara spoke up with a smile, "I believe it was about men and their need to both compete and overcompensate."

"Ah, that's right!" Ashley exclaimed excitedly, patting Liara on the shoulder. "Well, let me tell you something about that, hon…"

..

 _Back at the bar, at the same moment…_

"Besides," Marcus finished, "I don't think you'd want to see any of our female friends dancing on the tables."

Kaidan and Garrus laughed out loud, with Wrex looking from one to the other.

"What are you three talking about?" the krogan frowned. "When I mentioned krogan females on tables, I was referring to the _kat-kara_. It's a traditional pre-mating dance. Females must be on an elevated platform. A table is just – convenient. And you ask me what else is there in life to think about except females? Well, I certainly ain't going to start thinking about this turian across from me."

"You're just jealous of my good looks," Garrus deadpanned.

"Hah," Wrex barked a laughter. "In your dreams. No female would ever be attracted to a guy with no scars. Maybe you should take a rocket to the face, and then we'll talk."

"Hmmh… I'll pass," Garrus replied.

Everyone chuckled at that. It was then that the waiter came carrying their drinks.

"Here you go, gentlemen," the man said, doling out drinks. "Three home-brewed lagers, and for our turian guest – a bottle of Strumgeshtus Verean."

"Damn," Garrus muttered as he accepted the bottle and the glass from the waiter. "I can't believe you have _this_ turian beer."

"It's expensive, true," the waiter replied as he wiped his hands. "But since we don't have that many turians around, we figured it's better to have low amounts of high-quality beer sitting just in case, than having it the other way around – huge quantities that would just spoil eventually."

"Here's to that," Garrus replied, raising the bottle in cheers before he poured it into the glass.

"Looks like you have a nice and burgeoning little town here," Marcus said.

"And it keeps growing," the waiter replied proudly. "We've already begun constructing permanent buildings – all of it planned, large-scale, urbanized construction. We figure that in a few years, there'll be as much as fifty thousand people living here."

Wrex chuckled. "You humans like to live dangerously." He then peered upward from inside the terrace and pointed toward the large moon that was traversing across the skies. "That thing over there will drop down on your heads someday."

The waiter barked a laugh. "Not for another couple of million years it won't! And by that time we'll figure some technical solution to Thonal _not_ dropping on our heads. Asari like to call us short-sighted, but it took us less than a thousand years to advance from swords and axes to FTL flight. It took them ten times as much to do the same. Fear not; I figure that we'll have the solution to prevent Thonal's fall in a few hundred years or so."

"Hah!" Wrex barked, raising his mug. "Now, that's the spirit! Hell – I might even live long enough to see it!"

"So, what's it like here in Meridian?" Kaidan asked.

The waiter smiled a broad smile as he looked across the town and surrounding area.

"I have no idea what to tell you," he said. "We're small and it's peaceful, but it also seems vibrant. We have a lot of farmers and ranchers, but we also have a lot of scientists from the Citadel itself – a lot of them wanting to catalogue Ontarom's biosphere before Thonal's fall, and many others doing some other various research; don't ask me what, though." He laughed at that last. "But even though we're so vibrant, we have no crime, no problems… hell, this thing with Dr. Wayne is the first problem we've had since the beginning! Well, that and the recent string of strange thefts…"

"Oh?" Garrus perked up. "What kind of thefts?"

The man laughed out loud. "That's the strangest thing I've ever seen. Basically, it's this: about a month back, people started reporting their credits suddenly starting to disappear. Here you are, walking down the street in the middle of the day, and suddenly, your omni-tool starts to chirp. You look at it, only to see that your credits are slowly being siphoned away! A couple of credits every second or so, but still! A few seconds later the siphon stops. And there is no explanation whatsoever! The guys at the police department swept the entire town area for signals that would indicate electronic transfer several times but found zip. They blame it on their own electronics gear; they say it's a bit old, but they don't currently have the funds to appropriate new, so…"

"Hmm," Garrus mused as he turned to Marcus. "Maybe we should check this out, Marcus. I mean, I do have a lot of experience with the C-Sec, and my C-Sec hardware and software are brand new. Perhaps I could help the local PD."

"Well, whatever you do, I'm sure that ChiefVelkov will appreciate it," the waiter said, and then looked to the side. "Well, now, if you'll excuse me, I have other customers. Holler if you need anything!"

* * *

.

 _Three hours later, in Meridian's center area…_

"How did we find ourselves here, again?" Wrex grumbled.

The four of them were strolling down the busy main town street while they scanned the area with their omni-tools.

"Helping people is a good thing to do, Wrex," Kaidan chuckled at his grumpiness.

"As far as helping people goes, this is stupid," Wrex said. "We're supposed to be stopping a rogue Spectre that wants to bring about the destruction of the Galaxy at the hands of gigantic machines. Are we supposed to stop at every opportunity to help everyone around?"

"Well, if it's a small thing and it's on our way…" Kaidan said and trailed off with a shrug.

"Oh really? So – what? Say some hanar prophet starts to preach without a permit on Presidium, and we're supposed to handle it with the C-Sec?" Wrex demanded. "Or maybe help reporters plant bugs in – I dunno – Citadel Control maybe, so that they can make a heart-wrenching article about how controllers are overworked? Or maybe we're supposed to go around space looking for the insignias of all those turian colonies that disappeared before the Unification Wars so that Palaven museum can make a new exhibit? Where the hell is the profit or point to any of that?"

Marcus spoke up: "Well, most of those things… uhh… well, _all_ of those things sound a little too _weird_ for a Spectre to do, I admit, but this is a bit different. The local PD does not have the tech that we as a Spectre team do. If credits are being siphoned, and they can't seem to find where the money is disappearing to, then the least we can do is help them with this using our gear. Besides, it's a nice stroll down town."

Wrex sighed. "We could have spent this time hunting the local wildlife. There might not be thresher maws about, but there sure might be some other savage beasts!"

"Well, think of it this way –" Kaidan spoke up before he bumped bodily into Garrus, who had walked in front of them as the main investigator and had suddenly stopped.

They all stopped and looked at the turian from the side.

Garrus was looking far to the front of him extremely intently, craning his neck forward, his eyes wide and pupils narrowed into pinpoints, almost like a lion preparing to pounce on his prey. His nose twitched a couple of times.

Marcus spoke up worriedly, "Uhh… Garrus?"

"That is one _Shifty_ -Looking Cow," Garrus said slowly at last.

The three other men's eyebrows shot up before all three of them turned their heads _slowly_ toward where Garrus was looking.

A long-snouted alien creature with four legs and an additional pair of arms was strolling unhurriedly through the main street. Apart from its alien looks, it appeared to behave like an ordinary animal – a dog or maybe some herbivore – strolling around, sniffing as if searching for food, and apparently being very interested in sights and sounds of the milling people. And people actually almost didn't seem to notice it. A couple of them even petted it.

"Uhh… that looks more like a stag to me," Kaidan mentioned. "Or maybe a raccoon. A deer-fox-raccoon."

"I don't get what's so special about it," Wrex said with a shrug. "It doesn't seem dangerous. People don't even give it a second glance."

"Oh, but that's just it," Garrus almost whispered vehemently. "They're the worst kind. They seem like innocent bystanders when they actually take advantage of the people."

Wrex looked down at him with disbelief. "Have you been eating levo-food?" he barked. "What was in that beer you drank, anyway?"

"That animal's probably just looking for food in the town," Marcus said off-handedly with a smirk. "What makes you think that this… uh… 'cow' is shady?"

"Shifty," Garrus corrected, still not taking his eyes off of the alien cow, and then shook his head. "Just look at it. There's just no way you can trust an animal that can milk itself. And besides, those extra little hands look so… grabby! Turn your back on him, and those creepy little hands are going to go to work. Kiss those credits goodbye! Ahem, excuse me, sir?!" Garrus spoke up as he raised his hand, halting a passerby.

"Yes?" A young, thirty-something human spoke up as he stopped and turned to Garrus.

"Can you tell me what _that_ creature over there is?" Garrus asked, still looking at the creature.

"Oh that!" the man spoke up cheerily. "We call them Space Cows – a native life form. They're very intelligent and very friendly. They even know how to use rudimentary tools! Those scientists that catalogue Ontarom environment are _very_ interested in both them and the Space Beetles. They say that both are already evolving into sapient creatures. They say they'll become like us in maybe a hundred thousand years or something."

"And what about that particular one over there?" Garrus motioned with his chin toward the one Space Cow that moved through the throng.

"Oh, that!" the man spoke up cheerily, "That's Larry! He likes to separate himself from his group and come here to just hang out around humans. Everybody likes him. He came about a month ago or so, and has been everyone's favorite ever since."

"A month ago, huh?" Garrus murmured. "Thanks."

"No problem," the man replied and walked away.

The three men looked at Garrus who in all this time still looked intently at the Space Cow.

"You see?" Garrus muttered. "He came to town a month ago, and that's when the thefts started. I'm telling you, that cow over there is doing some shifty business. I have a gut feeling about it. It has never lied to me."

Marcus looked at him in surprise. "You're not seriously thinking that this cow has anything to do with those thefts?"

"Trust me on this one, Marcus, I know these things!" Garrus spoke insistently. "Let's just follow it for a little while, and scan things with our omni-tools. I'm sure something will come up!"

Marcus sighed, scratching the back of his head and spread his arms helplessly. "Sure, why not, if it will sate your need for stalking someone. We're supposed to go around streets looking for any electronic signals anyway."

Garrus smiled predatorily. "Trust me, you won't regret it. Come on, the Space Cow is moving."

The three men looked amongst each other helplessly and moved to follow Garrus.

"So now I'm down to following Space Cows around?" Wrex grumbled to himself. "What's next? Running around all over the Citadel and scanning the keepers for some whacko salarian scientist?"

Larry, The Shifty-Looking Cow, really did seem to skulk around as it moved through the streets, though. It always seemed to follow people around, but it never got specifically noticed by them; and whenever Larry the Cow moved close behind them, the people always started suddenly looking down at their omni-tools in shock and mild panic.

"Don't you see?" Garrus spoke to the rest of them, "All of those people that get approached by that Space Cow start losing their credits!"

"I _am_ detecting electronic signals consistent with money transfer right at their location," Kaidan spoke up uncertainly from where he monitored his own omni-tool.

Marcus raised an eyebrow, and Wrex seemed genuinely surprised at the development.

"Let me see if I can pinpoint it…" Garrus said as he worked his omni-tool.

They continued following the Cow for another fifty meters or so as they approached the edge of town, all of their omni-tools linked together as they scanned in the cow's direction as it skulked behind locals.

"There!" Garrus choked out as he raised his omni-tool and pointed the screen to the others. "There! See!"

All four men stared in shock at the omni-tool screen. An electronic signal that signaled money transfer was leaving a man's omni-tool and was streaming straight into the Shifty Looking Cow's hand!

"Holy Kalros," Wrex murmured in shock, as all four men slowly raised their heads and looked wide-eyed at the Space Cow.

As if sensing danger, Larry the Shifty Looking Cow suddenly stopped in alarm and whipped his head back, looking straight at the four of them. For a couple of moments, all five of them looked at each other in utter shock, before Larry bolted.

"He's made us!" Garrus shouted. "Get him!"

As one, all four men surged after the Space Cow.

"Dammit, that thing is fast!" Kaidan shouted as they scrambled through the alleys at the edge of town.

"He's going toward the countryside!" Garrus shouted.

Larry the Cow bolted out of the alley between the final buildings at the edge of town and rushed forward toward the forested area that surrounded a stream, the four men hot on his trail.

"I got a clear shot!" Wrex shouted gleefully as he unholstered his claymore mid run.

"No guns!" Marcus shouted as he pushed the shotgun away. "Just chase it!"

"What the hell, Shepard?!" Wrex growled even as he kept running after the alien creature.

"He's trying to run toward those hills," Garrus shouted. "I'll run around and flank him – try to drive him back toward town!"

With that, Garrus unleashed his species' signature running abilities and stormed at well over thirty kilometers per hour through the wood copse, the turian's natural running style looking uncannily like that of a roadrunner bird.

"Wrex!" Marcus shouted, "you keep after that cow and shout to make it scared! We'll go around to intercept when it doubles back after Garrus overtakes it!"

The two humans banked, with Wrex shouting back after them:

"Ugh, you humans are slow as hell!" He picked up after the cow, shouting, " _KORBAL!_ "

Larry the Space Cow picked up the pace as he ran up the stream bank, distancing himself from Wrex for a few seconds as he rounded a corner, before Garrus suddenly popped out of the nearby copse, blocking his path.

"A-ha!" Garrus shouted, dropping down into a posture ready to tackle.

Larry squeaked, breaking like a champ and doubling back, his hind legs kicking the soft ground powerfully and throwing a pile of river mud straight into Garrus's face.

"Ah, s'kak!" Garrus shouted as he stumbled, clawing at the mud in his eyes.

Larry rushed back, only to meet Wrex who charged at him from the side, his arms outstretched.

"Ha! You're MINE!" Wrex roared gleefully as he leaped head-first into a tackle.

Larry hopped like a stag, leaving Wrex to grab empty air and sail another five meters through it, before he landed with his entire bulk into muddy ground of the riverbank, making a small crater.

"I got 'im!" Kaidan shouted as he and Marcus stormed from the other side.

Larry made a slight hop, touched down and pivoted on his front legs, and made a vicious running kick with both his hind legs straight into Kaidan's chest, launching the human three meters away into a thick nearby shrub.

Marcus tried tackling the beastie, but Larry twisted through his grasp, making him fall down and skid on his chest across the soft green grass. As he promptly pushed himself up, a large mountain of mud ran past him.

" _ **I'm gonna kill 'im**_!" Wrex foamed murderously as he ran after the beast, the mud falling off of him with every step.

Kaidan extricated himself from the shrub by that moment, spitting out tiny leaves and branches as he ran together with Marcus after Wrex.

"Sonuvabitch kicks like a mule!" Kaidan wheezed.

"He's doubling back into the town!" Garrus shouted as he sprinted past them all, trying to catch up to Larry. "He can't gain a lot of distance in these copses! After him!"

And the crew followed with all the might of their legs.

Back at the bank of the stream, about a dozen of the Space Beetles were looking from their village after the racing group with bemused expressions on their antennae.

" _Mzzt, buzzz-zrzvn click-click mzzzmt chirp skitter-skitter?_ " one asked.

" _Bzzzn-nnt,_ " his buddy replied with a helpless shrug and a headshake.

With that, the two beetles laughed and returned to building the new mud dwelling.

Meanwhile, Larry the Shifty Cow had been zigzagging sharply through the woods, causing Garrus to overshoot him with every attempt to catch him and barely be able to avoid hitting a tree head on every time.

"What the hell happened to your famous speed?!" Wrex hollered as they chased.

"I can't!" Garrus shouted back. "Turians were made for straight runs, and this thing can zigzag like a freaking chaffa!"

"Just run!" Marcus shouted. "He's entering the town again!"

Larry zigzagged through the alleyways, kicking various junk and trash cans down in an attempt to slow his pursuers who were, truth be told, slamming into walls and trash cans as it was.

"I got a stun program I could use!" Garrus shouted as they chased him through the small yards.

"And you thought of it _now_?!" Kaidan shouted.

"I needed time to set it up, dammit!" Garrus shouted back.

"Wrex, you go that way!" Marcus shouted, directing the battlemaster.

Wrex roared and turned into a different street than the rest of them just as Larry the Cow raced out into the crowded street.

"I got him!" Garrus shouted as he pointed his omni-tool mid-run and unleashed a stun pulse just at the moment Larry had had the insight to bank, making the pulse wave miss him and knock out a few bystanders instead.

"Dammit, Garrus!" Marcus shouted as they ran past the knocked out people.

"I know, I know!" the turian shouted back in exasperation.

"Where's Wrex?!" Kaidan demanded, panting from exertion.

 _ **CRASH… BOOM… CRASH… BOOM**_ – the repetitive sound of crashing walls came from somewhere to the right of them where Wrex was bulldozing through fences.

"There he is!" Marcus replied wryly.

"Heads up, he's coming back into the main street!" Garrus called, and the trio rushed after the Shifty Cow into the throng.

Larry turned, but just as he started to pick up speed, Wrex exploded from out of one of the fence walls, sailing straight past Larry, and managing to snag one of his hind legs in the process.

"HAHA! YOU'RE MINE!" Wrex bellowed victoriously.

Larry moaned in distress, trying to free himself by kicking the krogan in the face, but he might as well been kicking a rock. Wrex held on firm and strong. By that moment, the remaining three men caught up to them, and with mutual forces pinned down Larry who made a few final pitiful moans.

"Hah, hah… we got him… we got him," Garrus wheezed.

He was the only one of them who was half able to speak up at all, the rest of them panting tiredly, including Larry, the Space Cow master thief, while a crowd of confused and intrigued onlookers was making a broad circle around them. Marcus was about to begin issuing orders concerning what to do with Larry when they all heard a very familiar woman's loud and pointed cough:

"Ahem!"

Marcus, Garrus, Wrex and Kaidan all slowly looked up from where they were handling Larry, to see none other than Jaina, Liara, Tali, and Ashley standing not three paces in front of them, all of them dressed in their civvies. Each of the four women was carrying a couple of shopping bags, and each of them – except Tali, of course – had obviously had something done with their hair/tentacles and face in a salon. Each had a new lightly-applied makeup that perfectly accentuated each of their beautiful eyes and luscious lips, and despite still having almost the same hairstyle, their hair seemed to have more lush to it. In short, they looked like a million bucks.

In comparison, the four of the guys (as Marcus quickly surmised after making a quick glance around them) were quite the opposite. Garrus still had a nice brown mask of mud on his face, Kaidan was riddled with twigs and leaves from the bush he was kicked into, the entire front of Marcus's own uniform was thickly streaked with green from where he skidded across the grass, and with his entire front marred in a mix of mud and whiteness of concrete from where he bulldozed through the fences, Wrex was the very definition of a walking ruin.

"I can't leave you alone for two minutes," Jaina declared as she looked at Marcus in amused disbelief.

"And. What. Are. You. Doing. To. That. Poor. Creature?!" Liara demanded crossly in her velvety soft voice as she stepped up and hugged Larry the Space Cow protectively, being quickly mirrored by Tali, with Ashley stepping up to Kaidan challengingly.

"Poor?" Wrex croaked back from where he was still trying to hold onto Larry. "He ain't poor! He stole over a hundred credits while we were following him alone! He's wealthier than I am!"

"What. Are. You. Talking about?" Jaina asked with a raised eyebrow.

At that moment, a pair of police officers ran up to the group. "Commander Shepard?" One of them asked in confusion. "What is going on here?"

"Officer," Marcus spoke up. "We've managed to discover the culprit behind those mysterious thefts. Uh… well, you're not gonna believe this, but it turns out that it's Larry, the Space Cow. But we have proof. Here!"

He motioned to Garrus, and Garrus quickly showed the data they had obtained while following Larry the Cow. The police officer looked down at Larry with his eyebrows raised.

"Larry is the thief?!" he exclaimed, then shared a look with his partner. "But that doesn't make any sense! He-he's a Space Cow for crying out loud! _A Space Cow_!"

"But you see the evidence!" Garrus shot back in exasperation.

"Well, yes, I do, but… h-how the hell is that even possible?!" the officer exclaimed as he scratched his head, looking down at Larry.

"Ahem," Jaina spoke up authoritatively, making everyone turn to her. "If you'd allow me, officer."

"Uhh-humm… y…yeah, sure," the officer replied helplessly, spreading his arms.

Jaina approached where Larry was being held by Wrex on one, and Liara and Tali on the other side. She placed her hands on her hips and looked down at Larry with a stern and expectant expression.

To everyone's surprise, Larry's albeit bestial face showed a surprising amount of emotional expression. Seeing he was being stared down, Larry's ears dropped down and he seemed to shrink down into himself as he looked up at Jaina with puppy eyes.

"You understand me, don't you?" Jaina said with surprise.

Larry looked fidgety as he looked left and right and then back up at her.

" _Mah_ ," Larry 'spoke' nasally with his rudimentary speech communication, nodding in confirmation to what people raised their eyebrows.

"You realize you're in a lot of trouble, Larry, don't you?" Jaina asked rhetorically.

Larry shrunk down, dropping his gaze to the ground.

"This doesn't have to end badly, you know," Jaina said, making Larry's ears perk up as he looked up at her. "You need to tell us how you stole those credits."

Larry looked guiltily around him, and then raised one of his arms and opened his hand. In it was a small electronic device the size of a bottle cap. Tali reached out and took the device, quickly scanning it with her omni-tool.

"I can't believe it," she said in wonder. "This device works as a scanner and an automated transfer device. It automatically scans the nearby people and their omni-tools, then establishes a network and starts siphoning small amounts of credits while the user isn't looking. It has a credit chit processor rigged into it as well. It stores credits there."

"How much is there?" Ashley asked.

"About five hundred credits at the moment, siphoned from about a hundred and twenty sources," Tali replied.

"That can't be it!" Garrus said. "He's been stealing credits for a month!"

"Well, it's obvious to me that Larry here is only an accomplice," Jaina stated, then turned to the thief, speaking slowly. "You're not stealing this for yourself, are you, Larry? Who are you bringing this to?"

Larry suddenly looked very distressed, fidgeting nervously.

"Hey," Jaina spoke up as she cupped Larry's chin and pointed his head it toward her. "Whoever he is, he's using you, Larry. He's a bad man."

"Mo!" Larry replied, shaking his head vehemently. "Miike ffrrrrend!"

There was an audible silence.

"Well, I'll be... It speaks!" Garrus muttered in surprise.

"Alright, Larry," Jaina shifted gears. "Mike may be a friend, but what he's doing is wrong. It is hurting other people. You need to take us to him. We promise we won't hurt Mike. Okay?"

Larry hung his head pitifully and stayed silent for a couple of moments before he nodded. There was almost a collective internal sigh.

The group moved to follow Larry, while also keeping a close eye on him so that he doesn't try to bolt. Garrus, especially, had prepared another stun pulse just for that case. After a few minutes of walking down the street, Larry turned into the yard of one of the prefab buildings and, propping on his hind legs, he reached up with his little hands and rang the doorbell.

A few moments later, a boy that looked to be twelve or thirteen opened the door and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the large group of people and a pair of police officers in front of him.

"Mike?" Jaina spoke up as she raised the device pointedly.

Mike looked down at Larry who couldn't meet his gaze and exhaled in defeat.

"Shit," he muttered, and then raised his head and looked at both of the police officers defiantly as he hugged Larry around his neck. "Don't you dare do anything to Larry! I convinced him to do it!"

There was a moment of silence as everyone in the group looked at the boy who defiantly stared back at them.

"Jesus Christ, Mikey," one of the officers muttered. "Is your mom around?"

The boy's face scrunched into an uneasy frown and he clenched his jaw. "No, she's still at work," he replied.

"Why the hell did you do this, Mike?" the other officer demanded sternly. "You're virtually the brightest kid in school! Hell – on the whole of Ontarom! You have the future in front of you!"

"Oh, that's bullshit, and you know it!" Mike shouted out furiously, surprising everyone. "You know darn well that if I want that future you're talking about, I'll have to go to college. That costs money! And Ontarom is not a part of Universal Alliance Free Schooling Program because it's not yet recognized as a full-fledged colony! It will require at least half a million colonists to be that, and we don't even have a hundred thousand. Are my mom and I supposed to move to another colony? That costs more than we have! Mom's working her ass off just so that we can live in a bit of comfort here since dad died. And am I supposed to join the Alliance Military just so that I could get a free scholarship? Well, fucking excuse me if I don't want bullets flying over my head!"

There was a heavy, uncomfortable silence as the kid finished his tirade. But the kid was right. And everyone knew it.

"Shit, Mikey," one of the police officers muttered as he rubbed his forehead uncomfortably. "You did this only for the sake of getting into college?"

Mike looked to the side, anger still evident in his features. "Yeah, say that I did – so what of it? It's not like you're gonna let me keep the money, so what difference does it make?"

The cop shook his head. "Just… tell me you still got all of it."

"Yeah, I still have it," he replied curtly.

"Well…" the officer trailed off. "You're gonna have to give it back, for starters. And you're gonna have to answer at least in some way for what you did, ya hear?"

"Whatever!" the boy growled.

The officers, as well as a few others of Marcus's team, seemed taken aback by the entire situation. But not Marcus. Not him. He had seen all this before.

"Officer, could you give me a moment with Mike?" he asked in a commanding tone that brooked no argument.

"Uh… yeah, sure," the man replied.

At that moment, an unknown woman's distressed voice came from behind them:

"Um… excuse me, but what is going on here?"

They all turned to see a woman in her late thirties standing at the gate.

"Lydia," one of the officers greeted her, then turned to glance at Mike. "Mike got himself into a bit of a trouble."

"Michael?" The woman demanded, but the boy refused to meet her eyes.

Marcus looked at Jaina and gave her a silent cue. She nodded and moved to walk to the woman.

"Mrs…?"

"Donovan," Mike's mom replied.

"Mrs. Donovan, I am Commander Jaina Shepard. Please walk with me a bit. It's alright, trust me. Everything is gonna be alright. I'll explain everything."

Marcus watched Jaina lead the concerned mother away together with the officers, with the rest of his teammates stepping off to the side. He turned to where Michel stood and motioned him with his chin.

"Come on. Sit here on the steps with me."

The boy reluctantly obeyed, the tone of Marcus's voice bearing a strange strength that made others wanting to follow him. The two of them sat on the stairs, with Larry the Shifty Cow sitting on the other side of Michael.

"You know, that was pretty damn impressive," Marcus said after a long moment.

Mike's eyebrows shot up as he looked up at him as if he grew horns.

"You're actually praising me for performing theft?" the kid asked dryly, then snorted. "And here I thought I was gonna get some dull talk about how crime doesn't pay and that I should be a _good person_ or some shit like that."

"What's the point?" Marcus replied calmly. "You're obviously smart enough; you know all that already. Why should I waste my breath? Praise, though?" he nodded. "Praise you deserve because you show more potential that 95% of people out there – most of who should be forbidden from breeding. And you're – what? Twelve I'm guessing?"

"Yeah?"

"Twelve, and you're already rigging up your own fully automated electronic device for siphoning money that nobody can track the signal to, and giving the hightail to the investigators for a whole month." He paused. "When I was your age, the siphoning devices I managed to rig were barely able to make a connection with the omni-tools of the people I robbed; I had to rely on my fingers to lift their credit chit most of the time."

"You pickpocketed as a kid?" he asked incredulously.

"Pickpocketing, robbery, extortion… I even killed another person before I was eighteen – self-defense, though. The list sure is colorful."

The kid was measuring him up silently.

"So, what now?" he asked after a moment. "You gonna tell me how Alliance changed all that and that I should go for it?" He managed to keep the derisive tone down, though it still showed.

"No," Marcus retorted firmly. "That's _my_ history, not _your_ future. What worked for me won't necessarily work for you. You already have here what I never had when I was your age, and that's what makes our cases different."

"Yeah? What's that?" he asked.

"Family," Marcus replied simply.

Mike quieted for a moment.

"Yeah, well, I don't have a dad anymore," he muttered sullenly.

"You have your mother and an entire town that knows you and would be ready to help you," Marcus retorted sharply. "I had nothing. I had people who wanted to either use me or abuse me for the heck of it. So don't compare us in that department."

"Gee, some pep talk there," Mike commented sarcastically. "You sure you know what you're doing?"

Marcus snorted, looking down at him as he contemplated him.

"Yeah, you got spunk kid, I give you that," he admitted. "Not a lotta people dare talk back to the Alliance's best and brightest."

Mike leaned forward, giving him a pointed look up and down his grass-streaked uniform from where he skidded across the fresh grass when he chased Larry.

Marcus traced his gaze, then inclined his head. "Alright, point taken," he admitted.

Mike sniggered as he hugged Larry who sat next to him. "Larry got ya'all good, didn't he?" he said.

"Yeah, he's a feisty one alright," Marcus agreed with a smirk. He then turned somber. "Not very nice of you to use him to do your work like that, though. I can understand why you did – nobody will look twice at a space cow – but that still doesn't make it right; especially if it's someone who can't really understand what he's actually doing."

Mike looked down to the ground, feeling bad about himself. Marcus spent a moment in silence before he continued.

"The question now is why do you do what you do," Marcus said.

Mike shrugged. "I wasn't lying when I said I wanted to use that money for college."

"Why college?" Marcus persisted.

"Well, it's not like I can get lots of money and a high-and-easy lifestyle if I stay here on Ontarom in the middle of nowhere," Mike said, spreading his hands and pointing around.

"No, what you just explained is what everybody wants," Marcus countered. "Money, social status, happiness, adventure – that's what everybody wants, and is not what I have asked you. I want to hear what _you_ want. Why do you do what you do? Did it feel good to take money from other people?"

Mike sighed, then shook his head.

"Nah, man," he said. "Truth? I felt bad all the time. I thought that siphoning tiny amounts of money – something that nobody would miss – would make it okay, but… damn, having that money felt real bad… I just don't know…"

Marcus took a deep, contemplating breath.

"So you took other people's property because of something that is not what you want," Marcus said. "Because of something that you _heard_ is supposed to be 'the thing' from people who don't even know what their own dreams are."

Michael was silent.

"So, what is your dream?" Marcus persisted. "What do you want?"

Mike thought about it. Then thought about it some more. Then, he sighed, shaking his head helplessly.

"I don't know, man…"

"Good," Marcus retorted. "Because no dream ever comes screaming in your face. Dream always comes from behind you; it sneaks up on you. You are not able to hear it, but right now, your greatest dream is whispering at the back of your head. It's almost impossible to hear. And it's okay; you don't need to try to hear it.

"But one day, sooner or later, you _will_ hear it. You _will_ recognize it for what it is. And once you do, you will feel like a star had lit up in your chest. You are going to be filled with such a sense of purpose and burning _need_ to manifest your dream that you won't be able to sleep. And one thing is for certain: unlike what you did here, you will feel good doing it. The work you will do while pursuing and making your dream come true will feel like the best feeling in the world, and nothing – _nothing!_ – will come anywhere close.

Marcus paused, taking a deep breath.

"So, you ask yourself: what _really_ makes you feel good? Cause from what I see when I look at you now, stealing from the people of Meridian – from your own people – felt anything but."

They spent a moment in silence. From the corner of his eye, Marcus could see that Mike was thinking. He was thinking and realizing things for himself; something that few people, especially adults, tended to do.

"What about you?" Mike asked after a moment, breaking the silence. "Have you found your dream?"

Marcus's gaze grew distant and it shifted toward where everyone else had retreated some distance away. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Yeah," he stated with a nod. "Yeah, I did."

"What is it?" Mike asked.

Marcus spent a moment in silence before he nodded toward the gathered people.

"It's family," he said. "I have found and built up my family. Something for which there won't be the distance I'm not willing to go in order protect and make it grow."

Mike followed Marcus's gaze to where the rest of the Normandy crew were some ways up the street mingling with a few other present townsfolk and the few police officers. Ashley was busy meticulously picking twigs and leaves out of Kaidan's hair and uniform and muttering like a mother hen at him, most of the words revolving around an exasperated ' _men_ '. Little ways to the side was Garrus, now clean-faced and hosing down the thick layer of mud and concrete from Wrex using a fire hose that the local authorities had provided.

"Come on, Wrex, you know the drill," Garrus's amused voice could be heard over the spraying water's din, "Surely you've been to prison!"

"That one prison didn't survive two minutes after I got there, and neither will you if keep talking," Wrex grumped loudly. "Now keep spraying!"

"A little more over there, between his legs," Tali's giggling voice directed Garrus's efforts, while Liara and Jaina were standing off to the side sniggering as they discussed the spectacle.

"That's some weird family you got," Mike judged, giving his solemn condolences.

Marcus laughed out loud, then looked to the side.

"Yeah? So is yours," he said, nodding at Larry who was chewing a glop he had dug out of his nose.

Mike laughed out loud. "Yeah," he said fondly, hugging the sentient critter around his shoulders. "That's my buddy Larry alright." He turned somber. "Hey, thanks. I'll, uh… I'll think about the things you said; it sounded smarter than most things people talk about."

"Any time," Marcus said, then nodded toward the distant group. "You're a lucky kid, you know. The town knows you; the cops and judges will be lenient toward you. A useful thing isn't it – to have people like that on your side. So think about it sometime, about what exactly bought you that credit with them, ya hear? Now go and have a talk with your mother."

Michael stood up with him and walked off to do as Marcus had told him, with Larry the Shifty Cow trailing closely after him. Jaina, meanwhile, had walked up and stood next to him with her arms crossed, smiling up at him.

"Now I know for sure," she said after a moment.

He looked down at her questioningly. "You know what?"

"You're going to be a perfect father material when the time comes."

He snorted and laughed. "I don't know, Jay," he replied. "The way my luck goes, our kids will end up being a natural disaster next to me."

"Just trust my feminine intuition," she said, then sighed. "Now, let's get you, mischievous boys, back to the ship. Honestly, though, how the heck did you manage to make such a mess out of yourselves? We were away for – what? Three hours? You men are really hopeless!"

And he laughed out once more.

...


	27. Chapter 27 - Shifting Tides

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _So first, let me thank you all for the awesome reviews and nice conversations we had about them! I usually respond via PM to as many of you as I can, and I know I hadn't responded to some of you, but what else would there be to talk about when all the reviews revolve around 'What an awesome chapter'? :) So, thanks for the high praise, really._

 _This chapter originally had 5000 words in it, which I didn't like, so I decided to improve it. Now it has over 15000. I think I overdid it a bit, no? I know. I couldn't stop. And it's radical! It's bound to raise some questions on your part._

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 8.8.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes, Intrigue, Militaristic…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 27 – Shifting Tides**

.

 _Six weeks after Ontarom incident…_

 _..._

A swirl of blue shimmered next to the Arcturus Gamma relay as an Alliance frigate jumped into the system. It navigated past the cruiser patrol group that guarded the relay and maneuvered deeper into the system, heading straight toward the Arcturus Station, being quickly guided through the throng of civilian and military ships toward one of the station's priority military landing pads.

Hackett watched patiently as the transport glided gracefully into the bay, followed by the sound of dull claxons as the docking ramp promptly extended and latched onto the main hatch. Seconds later, the main hatch opened and a pair of marines walked out, taking up sentry duty on its sides, with David Anderson stepping out right after them, wearing his officer's blues. A single military transport bag with his belongings was in his hand, and a grin the size of the Milky Way was trying hard to fight its way onto his face, as attested by the spring in his step. He walked briskly down the pad toward Hackett and, stopping two paces in front of him, he stood at attention and fired off a crisp salute.

"Nice to see you've made it here so quickly, Anderson," Hackett spoke as he saluted the man right back, then offered his hand for a handshake.

"Not quickly enough, sir," Anderson replied with a lopsided grin as he took the proffered hand in a firm handshake. "Over two whole months too slow in my book."

"I'll take your luggage, sir," a serviceman that had followed Hackett spoke, taking up Anderson's bag and walking off to deliver it.

Hackett motioned him with his head to follow in other direction, and the two men quickly fell into brisk pace as they walked down the pier and toward the tram station.

"I'm sorry that you're the one that drew the short straw and had to go through that, but you know what kind of chaos it was after Eden Prime," Hackett said. "In all the shuffling and reshuffling, you were the one who was left in the limbo; something that _shouldn't_ have happened."

"You can say that again," Anderson replied ruefully. "Being an emergency military attaché to the Citadel was _not_ how I wanted the rest of my career to go, so I sure as hell am glad to be away from it."

Hackett shook his head. "You're not the man that's supposed to sit behind a desk, Anderson; we all know that," he said. "It would be great neglect to have an N7 and one of our best Captains stuck at a political desk job when he should be out there," he waved toward the large windows that overlooked the stars. "But there were no ships to be commanded; not until now."

Anderson chuckled. "Trust me, nobody's gladder to hear those words than I."

Hackett merely nodded as the two of them entered the station's transport tram and he inputted the destination.

"When you sent the transfer orders, you told me that we were to attend a meeting," Anderson ventured. "You never said what about."

"A strategic meeting," Hackett said. "Krieg will be there."

"The Defense Minister?" Anderson wondered, narrowing his eyes. "This isn't an ordinary thing, is it?"

"No. The contents of the meeting are classified as Top Secret."

Anderson went silent for a moment.

"If that is the case, then why am _I_ there?" he asked gravely.

"Certain topics of this meeting will benefit from your input," Hackett replied. "A review of SR-1's performance is one of them."

"I see," Anderson nodded. "I just hope that the single mission where I was the ship's C.O. will be enough."

Hackett nodded. "Also, after the main part of the meeting is finished, you will receive a mission. A very sensitive mission. It will require you to be in the loop as to the bigger picture that depends upon its success."

Anderson met his serious gaze and nodded slowly.

The tram reached its destination, and the two men stepped out into the military headquarters of the Arcturus Station. All around them, the Naval offices were a buzz of organized chaos and activity, to a much greater extent than Anderson ever remembered it being.

The two of them continued past it, though, and straight toward the top security conference room. They flashed their credentials to the two fully armed and armored marines, then passed through the blast doors into the dimly-lit chamber that bore an uncanny similarity to the circular shipboard briefing room, if a bit of a larger size. Pivoted conference armchairs were arrayed near the outer wall, each with a small desk of its own, with the far wall bare, leaving room for a set of large holo-displays.

Several men were already inside – Joint Chiefs of Navy, Marine, and Intelligence branches, and a few other high-ranking officers too – but Anderson's gaze immediately fell on the soul civilian in the group. His very presence drew attention, not because he was the only civilian among uniforms, but for the sheer aura that the man exuded. Tall, dark-haired, and broad shouldered, his jaw was strong and the closely-cropped full beard he wore only emphasized it, but it was his stern, no-nonsense gaze that drew and demanded everyone's attention. With his dark hair graying at the temples and the sharp suit he wore, he was the very definition of a stern father you obeyed and wanted to one day grow up into.

The military had given birth to Steven Hackett; the civilian sector had given birth to Peter Krieg.

"Is that everyone?" Krieg asked as Hackett and Anderson walked to their pre-designated seats.

"It is," Hackett said simply as he and Anderson sat down.

"Then, we shall begin," Krieg declared, his deep voice reverberating across the room.

People moved to their seats, the sounds of shuffling filling the air for a few seconds until everyone settled.

Placing his thumb on a scanner of a boxy device he carried, Krieg activated a powerful jammer inside it, then spoke up:

"This strategic meeting is brought to order for the purpose of reviewing the progress of the strategic and military changes that had been set in motion in lieu of the Eden Prime Attack, exactly 67 days ago. The points of today's agenda are as follows: general review of the galactic situation and stance relevant to the topics at hand; military buildup and military technology advancements review, of which the subtopics are to include the review of recruitment for the mainstay forces, progress of the Colonial Defense Force formation and equipping, progress of the Mech Initiative, advancements in ground forces weapons technology and the progress of their implementation, and status and progress of the construction of the new ships in Jupiter and Eridani shipyards. Miscellaneous will be discussed at the end." He paused and looked across the assembly. "Objections or proposals for any additional things to be discussed on today's agenda?"

Everyone present shook their heads individually.

"Very well, then I declare this strategic meeting's agenda accepted," Krieg said, then leaned forward with his elbows against the desk. "With that, I will say a few words concerning the first point, which is the current galactic situation and stance relevant to this meeting.

"As you all know, the Parliament has had a long-standing history of chronic fear of what the Council would say if we were to begin our full-scale military buildup. Fortunately, however grim that might sound, the Eden Prime attack had shaken things up big time, forcing them to act. Now, the Council doesn't get to say anything against our very much justified push to go into a full-buildup which, as all of you already know, has been put into a full overdrive mere days after the attack, and has been rolling strong ever since. Now, usually in these cases, the politicians would get cold feet a couple of months later – which would be around this time – and the Council would use that moment to try to intervene and _influence_ them to actually try to prevent the buildup, justifying that the galaxy seems to be peaceful and that there would be no need for it.

"Fortunately for us, a sequence of events has occurred that has worked against that happening. Of course, I'm talking about the X57 incident. Now, I don't need to tell you what kind of an epic screw-up that was on behalf of our intelligence early warning system. Thank god that Commander Shepard has had an information-brokering network working for him that had picked up whispers from the criminal elements throughout the Traverse and managed to piece it together so that Shepard himself could stop it before it struck Terra Nova. Otherwise, we would have been looking at the most devastating terrorist act in human history; millions of colonists would have been killed. Ironically, though, that event has served to firmly knock any argument against our military buildup away from both the politicians' and the Council's hands.

"The second important event that I've been explained had worked immensely in our favor was Commander Shepard's execution of the ExoGeni CEO. Now, don't ask me how it worked or why, but my analysts assure me that what he did has caused the galactic-wide economic tremors, causing the investors to fear that the entire galactic economy might be standing on fragile legs. They ran away from stock speculation and went seeking firm ventures rooted in actual industrial production – ventures such as the ones sponsored by the Alliance Military; a military that has openly declared and shown that it has started rolling its war machine _hard_. Suddenly, the Council, who depends on money circling, has found itself faced with economic instability _unless_ they allowed us to continue our military expansion and buildup because _that_ is what all of the galactic investors had started investing in."

He paused, taking a look at everyone's faces to make sure they were following. And they were, very attentively.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he continued, "what I'm trying to say is that we have funding and backing that nobody in the galaxy can stop unless they want an economic recession to slam over their heads."

Cheerful murmurs echoed across the chamber, with one admiral going so far as to slam the desk with his palm. Krieg raised his hand, bringing the assembly to order.

"With that in mind," he continued grimly, "I need to, at this point, draw the attention back to Eden Prime attack. I'm sure that all of you know of the… _insufficiently_ substantiated rumors about the existence of the so-called Reapers; a synthetic species that has allegedly wiped out the Protheans 50000 years ago. Now, you have all heard and received copies of the conversation between Saren and Benezia. You've all seen the data from that geth memory core. Other than that, we have some information that comes from Shepard's interaction with the Beacon, but the Commander has remained very tight-lipped about it… Personally, I think he's just trying to cover his own ass from being labeled as delusional because all the indications say that he's sitting on some serious info. Which means that I am _very_ disinclined to discard the existence of the Reapers. This galaxy is vast; only 2% of it has been charted, and there's no asari, turian, or salarian that can convince me that there might not be something very big, bad, and sinister lurking in the dark. We cannot afford to dismiss anything."

There was a brief pause after he finished when Hackett spoke up:

"What is the word when it comes to the politicians?" he asked.

"Better than I feared, worse than I hoped," Krieg said. "They're not stupid, Steven. We're still newcomers to the Galaxy; they still remember the fear we all shared when we discovered mass relays for the first time. It's only been 26 years since we met aliens, and the fear of unknown dangerous things that might lurk between the stars hasn't left us yet. This thing just rekindled it."

"But, have any of them given any hint as to what is the general stance?" another admiral asked, raising his palm up for emphasis.

"The general stance is that if the Reapers do exist, then the things that have already been set in motion because of Eden Prime are the things that need to be continued and secured in their trek."

"So, the military buildup it is, then," a second admiral concluded, then sighed. "Well, at least it's something. Can we proceed to review where we stand in that regard?"

"Lets," Krieg nodded agreeably. "Parker?"

General Parker activated his omni-tool and sent a data packet onto the big screen.

"The aftermath of Eden Prime has seen a major influx of new recruits, which is a good and bad news all unto itself," Parker began. "Good news for obvious reasons, but bad news because we weren't quite ready to handle that many. The recruitment centers are swamped, and we have had neither enough room in the boot camps or training equipment for all of them in the first few weeks. Fortunately, this is where all that prefab industry came through, and the new training centers are already up and running, the only question is equipment."

Krieg waved his hand. "That's already being handled. All firms have gone into overdrive and twelve new contractors have been put to work."

"Twelve new contractors? That's a lot. How many recruits are we talking about here?" an admiral asked, frowning.

"The past two months alone had seen a greater number of recruits than the past two whole years combined," Parker said with emphasis.

An admiral whistled in impression. Another one, though, sounded skeptical.

"I'm not sure if it will hold, though," he said. "You know how it is – half of those boys and girls drop out in the first two weeks."

"Not this time," Parker shook his head. "This is different. The ones that might drop out are the Earthers, but what we're seeing here is a staggering number of colonists. Almost 80% of young people from Eden Prime ages 18-25 have enlisted. That's half a million people. Another three hundred thousand on Terra Nova so far. More still from Tiptree, Benning, Amaterasu… No, this isn't a spur of the moment thing. What we're seeing here is people saying enough was enough. Eden Prime, Terra Nova – these are their homes. Their doorsteps. They're not about to flee when they've spent decades building it! They are doing this because they want to actually be able to protect it."

An admiral chuckled ruefully. "Talk about a one-eighty. Three months ago, we were struggling to make our recruitment quotas."

"Three months ago, the political propaganda was still painting the galaxy as suns and rainbows," Parker retorted.

"Hey, I won't be looking at the gift horse's mouth," the first admiral said. "Having a great number of militarily-trained people among the civilian populace is the best deterrent against slavers. For the umpteenth time, I wish our people were more like the turians."

"Well, hopefully, the Colonial Defense Force program will get us closer to that," Krieg said.

"The process is already well underway," Parker picked up from him. "Eden Prime already has militia training centers deployed, and the rest of the colonies will have them up and running by the end of the month."

"The Parliament has made the CDF mandatory for all able-bodied colonists, though. Has there been any resistance to it?" an admiral asked out.

"No, surprisingly not," Parker replied empathically. "The deadline of one year until colonists needed to report for training was given, but over 90% of them have reported in already. Like I said, these people are very motivated."

"And what's the structure of their training and the state of their equipment?" another general asked.

"For now, the training consists of the organization, evacuation drills, but is planned to very quickly progress into arms training, then into organized combat."

"Just so we're clear – this is asymmetric warfare we're talking about?"

"That's right. We're not teaching them to be shock troopers. This is mostly guerrilla warfare and quick organization, response, regrouping, hit-and-run – basically, we're teaching them how to handle the situation instead of being chickens to the slaughter. We're teaching them how to survive, how to secure the noncombatants, and then how to strike back against an overwhelming and organized enemy. We don't want another Eden Prime nor another Mindoir ever to happen again."

"And the equipment they'll be getting?"

"Older grade of weapons and armor for the time being," Parker replied. "However, since Hahne-Kedar, Rosenkov, Ariake, and Kassa have been contracted to supply the new, high-end gear for our mainstay armies, the Colonial Militias will be receiving our soldiers' current-gen weapons and armor later as hand-me-downs."

"Well, considering that they had practically nothing before…" an admiral pointed out.

"So we really are going to train and equip large militias and then actually _send_ them home with military-grade weapons and armor?" another one asked.

"That's actually very beneficial," a general responded to that. "This way all that military equipment actually gets to be kept well-oiled and maintained instead of gathering dust. And we get to keep much better track of it – both of it and militiamen, actually. God knows how many kids go to become mercs anyway. This way, we keep them with us."

"If we're smart and handle these civilians carefully, we will be able to build up their trust and loyalty to the Systems Alliance with this. Plus getting a massive defense force against potential raids or invaders. A win-win- _ **win**_ situation in my book."

"But will we have enough gear to supply them all?"

"We will," Krieg said. "The public opinion is forcing the Parliament to maintain their financial support for the armament program whether they want it or not – especially when it comes to equipping the large civilian militia."

"Too bad we can't do anything about Earth civilian populace itself," an admiral said.

"Earth is divided into individual sovereign nations," Krieg said. "We cannot impose anything like the CDF to them; it's a diplomatic nightmare, so it is up to them how and whether at all they're maintaining their national armies. Nothing we can do about that. What we _can_ do and _have_ done is make the service with the Systems Alliance an appealing prospect for Earthers. And for that, we've been using the image of Commanders Marcus and Jaina Shepard as propaganda material shamelessly and mercilessly."

"And it works," Parker intoned seriously. "Those kids see a pair of badass people and they want to be them. It's just up to us to keep them in our grasp. But we'll just have to see the results farther down the line, won't we? We all know that most Earthers are nowhere near as tough and tempered like the Colonials are."

"That still means that real numbers could be the problem," another general said. "With this, we will be looking at millions more of fully-trained soldiers and tens of millions of trained colonial militia by the end of the first year, but when you compare that to _billions_ of militarily-trained turians…"

"Or even millions of batarian soldiers and tens of millions of _slave_ soldiers…" another person added. "We could make our soldiers or even our militia better trained, yes, but numbers are numbers. We need true, replaceable shock troopers to use against something like hordes of batarian slave soldiers, or packs of krogan or vorcha pirates."

"Which is the Mech Initiative," the first general stated, then looked around the assembly. "I propose we proceed to the second point of agenda."

Krieg nodded. "Do we have anything else to review when it comes to human personnel recruitment and training? Very well, then we will proceed to the second point – the Mech Initiative. Now, my sources suggest that Hahne-Kedar has already made some progress in that regard. Takeshi, where do we stand?"

"We're practically ready," general Himura said, then tapped out a command on his omni-tool and sent out a data packet to the room's holo-projector. A life-size figure of a mech appeared at the center of the room for all to see.

"This is the Rampart mech," the man spoke. "It's clear that it was built on the same chassis as the Loki, but that's about all that they have in common. You can see right from its outlook that it was made with to be a lot more… deliberate. Its armor, power generator, mobility and stability system – all have been significantly buffed up – plus they've actually added a shielding unit and hardened it against electric and electronic strikes."

"Won't matter a damn thing if it brainlessly advances through the open like the Loki mech does, though," general Parker commented.

"No, we've made sure it gets reworked to suit our needs," Himura said. "Trust me, I gave them a lot of grief over it. The Rampart runs, charges, vaults, leaps, dives, and rolls on par of any average soldier, and it actually knows when and how to seek cover. I guarantee it."

"How smart is it really?" Anderson found himself asking.

"It's not really," Himura replied immediately. "It's still just a VI, so it's not really capable to be intuitive and perform proper assaults or counterattacks on its own. It needs a commander for that."

"Which is why the whole idea of placing them as auxiliary group attachments to proper human combat units," a general nodded. "Good, I like it. If this mech is as mobile as you say and won't slow down our human soldiers, then having a mixed squad of humans and mechs can increase the survivability of our units immensely."

"Or, it can be used to lethal effect by our spec-ops teams," Anderson spoke up, drawing everyone's attention.

Himura frowned. "In what way?" he asked. "They weren't exactly intended for that."

Anderson pointed with his upturned palm at the mech's projection.

"Can they learn new tactics?" he asked.

"Yes, in fact, that's what they were intended for," Himura said. "They need to be used together with regular units, and for that, they need to be adaptable; we have, after all, intended to have them attached to colonial militias."

"Then, that's what an N7 would do with them," Anderson said. "He would train a small fireteam of mechs to serve as his grunts, adapting them to his own tactics. Mechs are quiet, precise, and they do not hesitate. Link them up with a spec-ops soldier's neural implant, and simple commands can be issued directly with mind – not unlike biotics. The mechs would become an extension of the soldier, his weapons and armor, working as one. An ordinary soldier might not have the skill or discipline to direct those mechs via a neural link, but an N7…"

There was silence in the room.

"That's actually a very interesting idea," Parker said. "Assuming we can protect them from hacks."

"The standard mechs already are," Himura said. "They do not have an antenna and aren't controlled via omni-tool but via their recognized human commander's voice and hand commands. And since they are hardened against EMP strikes, no wireless signal can penetrate them either. The only way to access their software is via physical port during maintenance. Which means that, in order for them to be able to do what Anderson said, we'd need to alter them a bit… but if it is a limited batch meant for spec-ops soldiers, then I suppose it would be very much possible."

"That is actually brilliant!" the second general said. "Having a standard variation of Rampart mechs controlled by commander's vocal commands won't interfere with regular troop method of operation. It's actually more practical than having commander tap around on his omni-tool – especially if his hands are tied shooting. This is perfect!"

"They still lack the intuitiveness of organic soldiers," Hackett warned.

"For that, I have soldiers that will order these mechs around," the general said. "But these mechs will be the ones to hold the line – against invaders or slavers – while the non-combatants retreat to shelter and the militia we talked about organizes itself into resistance! No, this is excellent! This is bloody excellent!"

"We need to strictly control who has the license to purchase these mechs," an admiral warned.

"Only the Alliance Military," Himura said. "That was the no-negotiation condition we imposed on Hahne-Kedar. We've made it clear that the penalties if so much as single Rampart ends up in non-Alliance hands will be quite severe."

"Good, good," the general said. "And what about that other project for a heavy mech?"

"The Sleipnir," Himura said, then brought up the projection. "It's an improved Ymir platform based on observations seen in geth Armatures and Colossi. Instead of two humanoid legs, it has four insectoid ones. As a result, its speed and stability have been substantially increased to the point where we can mount heavy cannons without sacrifice to accuracy, let alone the threat to topple over. But while Rampart has already entered production, Sleipnir is, unfortunately, still in testing stages. Initial data is promising, though. The single working platform has shown that it can scale large obstacles that Ymir simply has no way of traversing, while at the same time retaining a silhouette small enough to navigate corridors and use cover. It has armor plates on its shins, and its front legs can be tucked together, forming up an armored shield behind which Sleipnir can crouch into cover. There, it can fire while still retaining limited mobility by its hind legs.

"Looks good," the general said. "I'm hopeful that this will pan out, but we'll just have to wait and see in this case. And what about drone flyers?"

"Production has already been adjusted accordingly," Himura said. "Standard tripod flyers have been judged sufficiently quick and maneuverable. Just like with Ramparts, squads will be attached to platoons to serve as auxiliaries, or harassment or scouting force."

"So, what numbers are we looking at when it comes to the human-mech ratio in a unit?"

"We're thinking that for an average 30-men platoon, there'd have to be at least a section of Ramparts, plus a squad of flyers. So, ideally: 30 men, 15 mechs, and 8-10 drones. We're considering the feasibility of adding a single Sleipnir heavy mech if it proves itself. Logistically, the drones are intended to function as quick resupply carriers and their gun can be replaced with repair and medical tools in a pinch, so we've got that area covered."

"Hmm… Tactically, it's very sound," the general said. "Logistically, too. I have no objections."

"That covers all aspects of the Mech Initiative," Himura said. "We can move on."

"Very well," Krieg nodded. "We're moving on to review the status of new technological solution for the mainstay troop gear. Valenty? How far have we gone?"

"Not as much as I'd hope, but it's still much better than before," General Sokolov spoke up, his voice bearing virtually no trace of an accent. "Obviously, stronger guns and shields usually require more eezo, but since we've started mining those huge eezo lodes on Io, eezo isn't that much of a bottleneck anymore. What is, however, are heat sinks. More eezo means more heat buildup, and standard heat sinks cannot compensate, and this has been what's plaguing the galactic weapons tech for millennia."

"Oh, don't tell me that _you_ weren't able to rig something up," one of the admirals spoke up jokingly.

Sokolov chuckled. "Rigging something up isn't the problem; the problem is making it simple and resilient enough for those blockheads of ours not to break it," he said. "Fortunately, we have _very_ recently acquired a quite ingenious method to combat the heat buildup."

He activated his omni-tool and sent a set of image files onto the viewing screen.

"You're all familiar with the Normandy SR-1's IES stealth system, I trust?" he spoke. "That system uses mass effect fields to capture the heat and keep it in so it is not detected. This modified M96 Mattock you see on the images uses a somewhat similar, but far more stripped down system that does the exact opposite. It uses the mass effect field to force the heat _out_ through heat sink's radiators at a greatly accelerated rate, thus facilitating cooling."

"I know that rifle," Anderson spoke up, smirking. "Commander Shepard gave you the schematics for that cooling system, didn't he?"

Sokolov inclined his head. "He sold it to us, yes," he said. "It's his patent."

"Is it effective?" Himura asked.

"We've tested the system on a few different rifles," Sokolov said. "Obviously, bigger eezo core inherently means better cooling, but even older versions of Lancer have shown a rough 150% increase of its SBO rating and a 50% decrease of cooldown time. That's 95 of the standard, non-modified rounds before overheating, with a 3-second cooldown after that. With explosive rounds installed, the SBO rate is 13 rounds, whereas before, a stock Lancer couldn't fire more than five of them."

"Now, that's something," an admiral said. "Is the system expensive to implement?"

"Not really, and it is very robust," Sokolov replied. "It will handle dirt, ice, and mud with flying colors."

"Now if we could implement it together with that geth thermal clip system we discovered…" another one said.

"We can't. It wouldn't be compatible," Sokolov said. "Eezo thermal pump requires a gun to have radiators, like a standard heat sink. Geth thermal clips don't radiate heat. They just store it. The material is stupendously good at absorbing it, but that very heat will change its physical properties, rendering it useless after it is ejected. So, no, my advice is better to use what Shepard is using already: a detachable heat sink, like this…" he tapped the control, bringing up the image. "The entire standard heat sink would be clipped onto the gun by holding clasps rather than being bolted on. With a press of a button, the heat sink can be detached, clamped onto the thigh mag-plate to cool, while the spare heat sink is popped onto the gun."

"I see… Any issues about heat damage to the suit of armor if clamped like that onto a thigh?"

Sokolov shook his head. "No, those armors are made of ceramics and advanced carbon fiber composites; heat won't so much as touch them. You might think that it would be a danger if the soldier was standing next to something flammable, but then again, it'd be worse having superheated thermal clips flying all over the place. Now, we've already prepared the assembly lines for new weapons that would utilize this new cooling system, and, like with mechs, the manufacturers have been ordered to have the Alliance Military as the only supplier of the eezo thermal pump. Meanwhile, to help keep this system well out of our potential rivals' hands, we've given then the manufacturers the green light to develop geth-styled thermal clips for the civilian market. Hopefully, it will serve as a decoy for our rivals from finding out what we're really incorporating into our weapons systems, at least for the time being."

An admiral hummed in thought, then pointed his finger at the image.

"You know, that thermal pump system would turn our warships into powerhouses," he said. "If it radiates so much heat, our shipboard guns could operate for extreme periods of time."

Hackett leaned forward, speaking up:

"That particular idea has already been looked into, and we already have a preliminary working model on one of the Alliance's ships, but we can cover that once we get to the next point of agenda concerning the starships. Before we do that, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to this…"

Hackett sent a video file from his omni-tool to the viewing screen and promptly activated the recording.

The video started playing, and it became immediately clear to everyone that they were looking at was a front-mounted cam view from some kind of vehicle in motion. It was flying at a great velocity across the surface of a desolate planet, the speed pegging it as either a hovercraft or a low-flying gunship.

Before anyone could voice the question on what they were looking, they witnessed the view pitched up and turned left as the vessel climbed and banked over a small rise. As the vehicle barrel-rolled through the air, the view quickly panned down to show a contingent of geth troopers, with Armatures and Colossi surrounding an exterior of a Geth base.

For a moment there, everyone present expected what they thought was a gunship to start spraying machinegun rounds or launching missiles at the geth. Instead, they all jerked back in surprise when a high-caliber tank round slammed into one of the armatures, completely piercing it through and sending a shockwave of dirt and shrapnel in all directions.

The vehicle side-strafed to the left, dodging the heavy incoming fire as it engaged one of the huge Colossi. Two rounds, launched in quick succession, brought down a monstrosity that the M29s and M35s needed more than six shots to achieve, with another, identical heavy cannon's rounds from a second vehicle somewhere off-screen dispatching the second Colossus just as quickly.

As the geth troops began spraying concentrated fire at the two unseen vehicles, the shimmer of powerful barriers briefly flashed in front of the screen before a pair of guided missiles launched from each of the vehicles into the clusters of geth troops, the shockwaves inverting earth and throwing limp mech bodies spinning through the air.

As the surviving dazed and damaged geth tried getting back to their feet, a hailstorm of 12.7-cal machinegun fire erupted from a pair of side-mounted machineguns, mowing the survivors down like wheat. Bullet, plasma round, or a rocket – it didn't seem to matter what the geth were sending its way – the vehicle's barriers took it all in stride.

As the final stragglers got dispatched, the video paused, leaving almost everyone in a state of disbelief at what they'd seen.

"What the hell was that thing?" an admiral demanded in disbelief. "A gunship? A hovertank?"

"You tell me," Hackett said, and tapped the command for the holo-projector, bringing up the 3D image of the vehicle. "Because we have _no idea_ how to classify it."

The vehicle everyone saw had a rough outline of a Mako in its core, but that's where the similarities ended. Instead of wheels, a hover system with an added pair of thrusters to the rear was installed, and it sported a pair of large, side-mounted, armored turrets up at the front that housed heavy machineguns with an array of missiles.

But the main feature that nobody could've missed was a turreted cannon mounted all the way at the rear of the vehicle, whose bore ran almost the entire length of the tank.

"How can a hover vehicle field a cannon of that size and strength, and remain stable?" general Parker wondered.

"Ask our Spectre," Minister Krieg said dryly. "He's the one who built it."

Eyebrows shot up as they looked to him, then back down at the image of the vehicle.

"It is because Shepard used a large Martellix core and a Rhinok hover system," Sokolov elaborated more closely. "That cannon may fire as much as it likes; the platform won't budge."

"First a new type of heat sink, then this?" an admiral asked pointedly as he motioned with his hand to the projection of the vehicle. "Is there anything else he designed that we're supposed to be reviewing on this meeting?" he asked sarcastically.

Krieg motioned with his palm. "Well…"

"Don't tell me that!"

"How's it possible that one man is capable of designing so many things in such a short time?" another admiral demanded.

"Not a short time, admiral," Anderson spoke up. When everyone's eyes turned toward him, he continued. "I've known Shepard for a long time. He always had that engineering knack. Even before I knew him, he earned his living by tinkering with the large machinery, and he used his free time in the military to design various technological solutions that he felt would have helped him during his missions and assignments. His rifle, the modified M96 we saw, is the result of a whole year of work, trial, and error. As for this vehicle – I've seen some of the early schematics three or four years ago."

"Fair enough, but that still doesn't explain how the hell did he build it so quickly?"

"Because as a Spectre, he doesn't have to go through any of the red tape," Hackett replied. "An engineer would need to work for a company or an organization and request funds and materials from the higher-ups. But as a Spectre, he can just commandeer a military vehicle and use his own funding to do with it whatever the hell he wants."

The admiral harrumphed. "So in this case…"

"He tore down and then reassembled a Mako with the new parts that he bought," Hackett replied. "Look at these images."

The big screen displayed images that Anderson recognized as the crowded cargo bay of the Normandy, with a half-disassembled Mako being the center of it. The second image showed the finished hover vehicle.

"The difference between those two images is eight days," Hackett said pointedly. "Shepard named it the Scorpion."

The many sets of eyes looked down from the image to the 3D projection at the center of the room, noting how the side-mounted turrets resembled the scorpion's pincers, and the main gun the stinger tail.

"Well, it does resemble one," an admiral said ponderously, then frowned. "But didn't we have an experimental hovertank project similar to this? The Hammerhead?"

"We do, but that one isn't supposed to come out for another two years," Sokolov replied.

"And its capabilities aren't supposed to be nowhere near as potent as the Scorpion's," Hackett added.

"Which is why I'm particularly dissatisfied with our military's R&D department," Krieg said. "I can understand that a true state-of-the-art war vehicle requires lots of tests, and I can understand the lack of funding from before Eden Prime attack, but when you look at World War 2, none of that holds water. Russians were sometimes designing or rigging up new types of war vehicles in matters of days, and they barely had anything. Germans had state-of-the-art machines, and as a result, they couldn't have enough units to deploy everywhere."

"The Scorpion _is_ pretty low-tech and straightforward," Sokolov pointed out to everyone.

"Shepard had provided all of the technical specs to Hackett, and he has forwarded it to Sokolov's 303rd technical division," Krieg picked up, then looked at him. "I hear your boys have swarmed all over it like a pack of angry ants."

"As of this morning, we've modified the chassis of 32 Makos," Sokolov reported. "Seven of them are up to specs with Shepard's two models, but the remaining 25 have had to have smaller eezo cores and not-as-adequate hover systems. As a result, the performance of the latter 25 models is somewhat diminished, but is still significantly higher than that of any gunship, let alone any IFV we have."

"Does it carry troops like the Mako too?" General Parker asked.

"No, the eezo core compartment had taken up a lot of the rear space where Mako would have had troops. Instead of eight troopers, like the Mako, the Scorpion only carries four – a pilot and a gunner, plus two, though it could be fully operated by a single man in an emergency."

"Space for four troopers was taken up?" an admiral asked. "Just how big is this eezo core?"

"It's not so much the size of the eezo core, though the Martellix _is_ four times larger than what you'd normally see in a Kodiak," Sokolov said, "but the reason the 'engine' compartment took up that much space is because Shepard has left a section of it empty for the purpose of installing an FTL module. He couldn't do that – as you know, FTL module is the one thing that requires being carefully designed and calibrated to that vessel's shape, mass, and volume; you can't just pop in a replacement from any other vessel – which is why he left that particular aspect of the job to our engineers. A vessel of this size won't be able to achieve more than a couple of factors of c, but even that is sufficient. It will have the ability to jump through the relays and to operate across an entire solar system. It might not be nearly as fast as our fighters, but the strategic potential of this vehicle cannot be denied."

General Parker spoke up, pointing at the projection:

"If all that you say is true, then there is nothing of similar tonnage in our arsenal that matches those vehicles' capabilities. Nothing. Gunships might be as fast, but their armor is paper-thin, and they don't have anywhere near the firepower. Tanks might be as resilient, but they are nowhere near as mobile, so… Hell! If those 25 so-called sub-par models are even half as good as what I've seen this vehicle do on that recording, we could say goodbye to gunships, Grizzlies, and Makos altogether. Especially if you consider we'd be manufacturing only one unified platform, rather than the three radically different ones."

"Maybe, but this kind of vehicle is exponentially more expensive because of its eezo core," an admiral pointed out. "We might not be able to field as many of them as we could tanks and gunships."

"I think that pros outweigh all cons by a large margin, Maggie," a general said. "With the Scorpion's firepower and staying power, combined with its extreme mobility, I could do more with one platoon of them than I could with a tank company and a flight of gunships combined!"

"Hmm… Well, I'll trust your judgment, Johnson," she replied. "And don't get me wrong, I'd really like to see these vehicles enter our mainstay. The way I see it, Scorpions could be an excellent asset that can raid pirate strongholds if deployed from a cruiser or a carrier, and they can be a major asset for the spec-ops team to resolve the situations such as the X57 incident."

"Which has already been shown as practical by Shepards," another admiral pointed out. "No doubt about it, the Scorpion obviously represents an apex form of the bridge between surface and orbital actions. The only thing that remains now are the starships themselves."

"He's right. None of what we've discussed until now matters if we can't protect our skies from the big guns, especially for when the batarians finally go to war against us," another admiral pointed out.

"I agree," another admiral said. "I'd stake my life on the fact that they've been building dreadnoughts like possessed since they left the Citadel. Hell. With it being almost twenty years, and with Camala's eezo deposits going solely to them, they might have even managed to outfit as many dreadnoughts as the asari have!"

"A disconcerting thought," the second admiral agreed.

"But not at all unfounded, and we all know it," the first one added. "We need those ships."

"Alright, so if nobody has anything left to add concerning the status of surface forces and tech, we'll be proceeding to the topic of shipbuilding," Krieg declared, then sent a grim look Hackett's way. "Steven. I'm giving you the green light for a full disclosure."

Hackett nodded, then leaned forward with his elbows on the desk, cupping his fist in front of him.

"What I'm about to disclose was classified as above top secret, and as such, only the Defense Minister, Director of Intelligence, and since recently myself, have been in the loop. In order for you to understand the sheer scope of everything I'm about to tell you, I need to explain the background that has prompted it.

"It all goes back to the early 2160s when the Citadel Council granted humanity free right to colonize the Skillian Verge. Some of you might be aware of this already, but they did it for one reason alone: to keep us and the batarians pitted against each other so that the humanity, a new player, and a wild card, could be kept in check.

"Most of our leadership at the time had failed to realize this quickly enough. But when the batarians left the Citadel back in 2165, a few very smart men realized the gravity of the situation right then and there. We had expanded across the entire Verge and all the way into the Traverse, and now, we had a rogue state at our flank and the lawless Attican Traverse straight at our face – a rogue state that was no longer bound by any treaties, and could build as many dreadnoughts and research as many previously illegal technologies as they could. So now, we couldn't build dreadnoughts; the batarians could. We couldn't even build as many regular warships as we wanted because the Council was trying to suppress our buildup on the account of maintaining peace; the batarians had no such problem. And those same smart people already realized that if a war were to occur, the Council would _not_ step in to help humanity – not right away, anyway. They'd want us to bleed against the batarians so that once they did step in, the Alliance would be too weak to resist any of their imposed… _regulations_ … and would have to accept the Citadel's authority – their ultimate goal from the very beginning.

"In order to prevent this from happening, in order to help us ensure an absolute victory against the batarians so that we remained an undisputed power in the region, with our military as fresh and as strong as ever, thus tying the Council's hands, those few smart men have devised a project they codenamed The Emergency Shipbuilding Program… And judging by your faces, I trust that at least some of you are acquainted with the term."

"The Emergency Shipbuilding Program?" an admiral spoke up. "This wouldn't be that program from World War 2 when the United States built some 6000 cargo and troop transport ships in an unprecedented short amount of time?"

"That was the inspiration for this project, yes," Hackett replied. "Seeing that we were going to be wedged between the batarians on one side and pirate fleets on the other, and with the Council preventing us from building up a sufficiently overwhelming navy, we made the most practical alternative: we built a chain of hidden shipyards that would be activated the moment the situation was sufficiently dire. This thing with Eden Prime, with an army of rogue synthetics suddenly raiding one of our worlds? You're damn right it was judged sufficiently dire. The Vulcan Shipyards had been active and operating since Day 3 after the attack."

There was a moment of silence.

"The original Emergency Shipbuilding Program was building transporters," an admiral said carefully. "Some frigates and escort carriers, true, but it was mostly cargo and troop transporters. I don't need to tell you that war cannot be waged with those."

"And it is what my predecessor thought so too when he initiated the project," Krieg spoke up. "Don't let the name of the project fool you; it was made as a ruse for all foreign espionage agents. The Vulcan Shipyards in Epsilon Eridani were, from the very start, intended to construct full-fledged, state-of-the-art warships."

An admiral licked his lips, then asked, "What kind of shipbuilding capacity are we talking about here?"

"Take a look for yourselves," Hackett said and opened up an encrypted data file from his omni-tool and sent it onto the main viewing screen.

He watched as their faces first settled into concentrated frowns as they examined read the data, before one by one, their eyes began to widen.

"This…" an admiral spoke, trailing off. She raised her eyes to look at Hackett. "This can't be right!"

"It is," Hackett replied succinctly.

The entire room briefly glanced at him incredulously, then back up at the screen.

"In only two months?!" demanded another one with his palm upturned.

"In only two months," Hackett confirmed. "One ship a day – that was the adage that the creators of the project wanted it to be. Not exactly possible, true; it still takes more time to build a true warship. But one hundred ships in one hundred days? Definitely possible, if you have one hundred construction piers. One hundred hulls had been laid down a mere week after Eden Prime attack. Right now, all of them are more than halfway through their completion."

"Jesus," one of the admirals muttered into the ensuing silence.

"What ship class are we talking about here? The York-class cruiser?" another one asked.

Hackett shook his head. "The production of York class will continue on the standard arrangement in Jupiter shipyards. Eridani shipyards are producing something else entirely."

He tapped a command on his omni-tool, and a projection of a ship appeared at the center of the room for all to see. Almost everyone blinked a few times as they saw the projection before them.

"The Normandy class?" one of the admirals asked incredulously.

"60 out of 100 ships in this first batch, yes," Hackett replied. "The remaining 40 will be split between the two new ship classes that we'll review today."

"You can't be serious," an admiral exclaimed, drawing attention to himself. "The York is the second-heaviest and the most heavily armed cruiser class in the Galaxy – it's practically skirting the boundaries of Farixen – and you're constricting _this_?"

"Yes, I admit, York is formidable," Krieg replied. "707 meters long, triple spaced armor, twin coaxial guns, plus a total of 78 broadside cannons, eight javelin launcher tubes, and even a small strike wing of 12 interceptors tucked between the armor plates. A pocket dreadnought we designed just for the purpose of bypassing the Treaty of Farixen. But tell me something, Boris – no, actually, I'm asking this question to all of you here: can this one ship – only _one single_ York-class cruiser – be capable of clearing out 80% of the known pirate and criminal groups of the Skillian Verge?"

The admirals blinked.

"Is that a hypothetical question?" one admiral asked confusedly.

"No, this is not a hypothetical question, Kathryn, what I'm asking you all is to evaluate a realistic scenario," Krieg replied. "Can one single York cruiser with ensured resupply be capable of eliminating 80% of the pirate and criminal groups in the Verge, using all realistically possible tactics at its disposal?"

"Well – no, of course it cannot," an admiral replied immediately.

"Why?" Krieg demanded.

"Because pirates run, plain and simple," another one replied.

"Yes – the moment they spot an Alliance warship, they retreat; they're not stupid."

"All pirates work by deploying scouting probes in those systems where they have their surface bases," the first one picked up from there. "The moment they detect an Alliance ship, they…"

He suddenly trailed off, an incredulous realization dawning on his face his jaw slackened and his eyes turned back to the Normandy's projection, drawing the confused looks of all other admirals to himself.

" _Go on_!" Krieg demanded pointedly. "The moment the pirates detect an Alliance ship, they…?"

"They make themselves scarce," another admiral continued instead. "Unless they cannot see it…"

"And can they _not see_ a York-class cruiser approaching?" Krieg demanded.

"No," the man replied seriously, realizing what point Krieg was driving. "Unless they're really careless or drunk, they'll always see it, they'll always run unless they have a clear numerical advantage… but they cannot see the Normandy, can they?"

"No," Krieg replied. "No, they cannot."

There was a stunned silence as everyone in the room realized what Krieg was getting at.

"It can't be," an admiral said incredulously. "Are you suggesting that that scenario about 80% of Skillian Verge being cleared by a single ship is _really_ not hypothetical?"

Hackett spoke up, his gravelly voice filling the ensuing silence:

"During his pursuit of the rogue Spectre Arterius, the trail has led Commander Shepard to scour the Verge and the Traverse for any trace of him. In his pursuit, numerous criminal organizations throughout the Verge had crossed his path.

"The result of this was that over the past two months, the Normandy has singlehandedly intercepted and eliminated a total of 28 pirate ships, as well as no less than 17 geth warships – five on Feros and twelve throughout the Armstrong Nebula where the geth had made an incursion. Of all these ships, none of them were traveling in groups smaller than three, and five eliminated ships were full-fledged cruisers. In addition, the Normandy's stealth system has enabled it to destroy no less than 13 hostile surface bases by ambushing them, five of which were fully-established Type-5 geth bases. Most of the eliminated criminal organizations were just your average local warlords, but the notable one was Alec Darius from the Plutus system. I don't think I need to explain just what kind of a thorn he was in Alliance's side because you all already know the extent of his armament and defenses after we had armed and equipped him to keep the batarians away before he went rogue."

"Darius had a decommissioned Berlin-class cruiser and a wolfpack of frigates," an admiral spoke slowly. "A total of seven ships. We couldn't dislodge him from Nonuel without sending an entire task force, which we couldn't do because moving that many ships to a non-relay system like Plutus would have been very risky with it being that close to batarian space. How the hell did the Normandy manage to eliminate them on its own?"

"The Normandy had walked up to Darius's ships without them ever knowing it was there," Hackett replied. "It unleashed a full salvo of disruptor missiles into them before their GARDIANs had the chance to react, and all that without even having to break its stealth cover. Sixteen disruptor missiles. One is enough to knock-out a cruiser-weight vessel."

"And you're telling us that this scenario has repeated itself all over the Verge and the Traverse? Only one ship achieving all that?"

"Yes," Hackett replied firmly. "The Normandy has managed to achieve what an entire fleet couldn't hope of doing. Let that sink in."

There was a long moment of silence as everyone absorbed this.

"God almighty," an admiral muttered. "And when we created that vessel, the most I thought it'd be good enough is to loiter in enemy systems and monitor traffic or drop infiltration teams!"

"I thought it was nothing but a co-developed boondoggle in order to play nice to the turians!" Boris croaked. "Color me impressed, but even so, we can't really base our entire future doctrine on stealth assaults with Normandy-class frigates. What happens when an enemy breaks through their stealth? They would be useless in a standup fight!"

Anderson spoke up, "Actually, sir, that would definitely _not_ be the case."

"What do you mean, Captain?" he asked.

"Because the Normandy has a cruiser-sized eezo core," Anderson replied with emphasis. "That means that its barriers' and its main gun draw have the commensurate mass effect factor. Its main gun might not be as long as a cruiser's, and thus only clocks at some 55% of the one on the Berlin-class, but its barriers are even more powerful because the shield emitters can concentrate all that power around a much smaller volume that is Normandy. During its shakedown run, its barriers had an active power output of 115% of a Berlin-class cruiser.

"In addition, being a frigate with an oversized core, the Normandy possesses speed and maneuverability unlike any other known ship in existence. Its inertial dampeners are so strong that they enable maneuvers that'd shear any other ship in half, and with an evasion algorithm enabled, it is capable of dodging away from the enemy ship's firing arc before they can even acquire a firing solution. Not only that, but its top speed exceeds 20 light years per day, beating the second-fastest ship, the salarian STG corvette by whole 5 LPDs, not to mention that the fastest cruisers don't exceed 12 LPDs on their finest day!

"And finally, when I said that its gun does not quite clock as high as a cruiser, that's why the designers installed those sixteen disruptor missile tubes. Each of those strikes harder than a dreadnought main gun, and due to its speed and agility, the Normandy is currently the only ship in existence that can charge a dreadnought into a knife-fight and discharge a full salvo that is capable of overwhelming its GARDIANs."

Dead silence reigned throughout the chamber as he finished. Nobody knew what to say. What could they say? They had been sitting on a technology that had made all the combat rules that the galaxy had relied on for millennia obsolete, and they weren't even aware of it.

Hackett chose the moment to speak:

"As you can see, this is the very reason why the Normandy-class frigate is going into full production. Like the submarines of yore, the IES technology had broken all the rules of warfare.

"To asari, turians, salarians, and all other species, a capital ship had always had only one definition: a warship with a coaxial main gun longer than an equivalent of 800 meters. We, humans, however, had always used a much more flexible definition. In our military dictionary, a true capital ship has only ever been defined as a ship so powerful that no other ship can safely operate in the same waters – or the same area of space. When we came to the scene 35 years ago, the aliens quickly realized that our carriers more than live up to that definition, yet they still staunchly held on to the definition of their own.

"But now, we _have_ truly and utterly broken the rules. What we have now is a frigate-sized ship that, despite its size, completely falls into the category of a capital ship – it is so dangerous, that not even dreadnoughts nor carriers can be safe while a Normandy-class frigate is prowling the same area. And, apparently, despite the fact that the turians already have the blueprint and the salarians might very well already have stolen one as well, nobody but us seems to truly realize just what it is that they have in their hands."

There were a few moments of silence as everyone looked to each other, reading one another's faces.

"You said 60 ships?" one of the admirals asked.

"60 in this first batch that's slated to be complete in the next forty days," Hackett replied. "There will be more, that's definitive. As it stands, the current plan is to maintain this level of production for two years at the very least."

"With the rate of one hundred ships every one hundred days?"

"That's right," Hackett replied. "That's 700 ships from the Vulcan shipyards in Eridani alone. With other regular shipyards throughout the Alliance space, that number will exceed 800 ships of various classes by the end of 2185."

"Sweet Jesus," an admiral muttered, then spoke louder. "I can understand what the Minister here said at the start of the meeting, that the current economic situation has made private investors galaxy-wide invest into our ventures, but where the hell do we get the materials from to build so many? Even for these 100 ships of the first batch?"

"The Normandy isn't a big ship, that's for one," Hackett replied. "It takes over a hundred Normandies to be equal in weight to a Kilimanjaro, so the material requirements aren't that much of a big deal to start with. The only thing that would have been the bottleneck would have been the eezo, but with Io's lodes, that is pretty much taken care of, not to mention the fact that now that the SR-1 has eliminated the majority of pirate and criminal elements throughout the resource-rich Verge, our mining ventures have already begun setting up shop. Shepard has already transferred the data on a huge amount of mineral lodes his team has discovered: light and heavy metals, rare earths, gasses – you name it. With that, and the newly-liberated Nonuel's eezo reserves to supplement what we already have, we won't be lacking in production materials whatsoever."

"So, based on what you're saying, the Normandy has been operating in near-constant combat condition since Eden Prime?" an admiral asked. "Have they managed to uncover any issues with the design or its systems? It'd be good if they have, so we can eliminate those things in these new Normandies we're building on Eridani."

"They have, and they've gone the extra mile or ten," Hackett replied as he worked his omni-tool to bring up the data.

"Ahhh, that's right," another admiral spoke up, "you've mentioned earlier that those new heat sinks and Scorpion aren't the only things Shepard made." He chuckled and leaned forward. "Well, I'm guessing that I'm speaking for everyone here when I say: we're all ears, Steven!"

"The first thing I'm going to say right away that the Normandy is a marvel of engineering, and kudos go to the team of humans and turians that made it," Hackett said. "Unlike your average ship, no direct issues could be discerned even after sixty days of almost non-stop combat run. That ship runs like a greased lightning.

"Obviously, Shepard has made a number of observations and has already proposed some radical changes to the design which we won't be able to fully implement with the SR-1 class. Most of them revolve around its newly-discovered combat prowess, but some are more combat insertion and invasion oriented. He has proposed a significant increase in ship's length – mainly to accommodate the significantly larger missile storage bays and fuel tanks so that it is more independent on long deployments. An increase of the cargo bay was proposed, along with a pair of marine barracks sections to the upper port and starboard side of the cargo hold – an obvious improvement to the ship's spec-ops and ground operations capability. Obviously, all of these improvements are impossible to implement on the SR-1 class, as it will require an extensive redesign of the ship, along with an even bigger eezo core. We have, however, sent those initial drawings to the engineering teams, and have labeled the project as SR 2.0. We'll have to wait and see the results in the future, but fortunately, there had been a number of improvements that we _have_ been able to incorporate into the standard package – and some of these are applicable to other ship classes as well."

Hackett manipulated the holo-projection, outlying the sections on the Normandy as he spoke.

"The first upgrade which can only be applied to a frigate-class vessel is a pair of form-fitting atmospheric intake scoops under the root of its wings, with an internal H-fuel converter. The Normandy-class ship will be able to dive through a gas giant's upper atmospheric layer and replenish some of its fuel reserves in this way. It won't be able to fully eliminate the need for refueling, but it will reduce the fuel consumption by 75%, essentially tripling its cruising range.

"The second improvement is something that a quarian team member of the Normandy's specialist team has apparently developed. It is operationally dubbed a cyclonic barrier, which oscillates rather than being static, thus enabling it to slap the incoming projectiles away rather than wasting its energy absorbing them. This tech, unfortunately, is not perfect, I'm told, as it is liable to backfire if the arrays are not kept in top shape, but our own initial tests show that it is capable of boosting the ship's barrier effectiveness by over 78%."

There was an impressed whistle from the group. Hackett glanced around, gauging their faces.

"Obviously, I don't need to tell you how great of an advantage this tech would be if we could tame it," he said.

"And the final improvement is, in my opinion, the most important of them all. Essentially, it is a ship-borne version of the mass effect thermal pump we had discussed earlier. It was just as Onassis said – this thermal pump system is capable of drastically improving a vessel's capacity to increase the rate of fire and actually keep it sustained for a far longer period of time. Employing that system on the Normandy turned out to be exceptionally easy. All they had to do was use the IES system itself. That system already pumps the heat into the heat sinks and keeps it there; all they had to do was to switch off the IES field that captures the emissions and open up the radiator hatches. The result was that the heat got literally forced out at an unprecedented rate. It reduced the IES recharge time from dozens of minutes to less than two."

"That's more effective than the droplet radiator system," an admiral commented incredulously.

"And with zero threat of actually losing the coolant fluid while maneuvering the ship," another one added.

"Agreed. That's damn impressive."

"Then you will be even more impressed with what follows," Hackett said, manipulating his omni-tool and marking out a section at the upper rear part of the Normandy projection's hull that stood at the center of the room, then zooming in the view.

"One of Normandy's GARDIAN array lasers?" one admiral queried with a raised eyebrow.

"Not anymore," Hackett said, then took a deep breath, thinking on how to best explain. "Someone answer me this: what is the greatest bottleneck in the IES system?"

"The fact that it needs to drop stealth in order to release the stored heat," Anderson replied immediately for all to hear.

"That's right," Hackett said. "The IES heat sinks have an upper capacity, and not much can be done to significantly increase the limit. Once the ship shuts down the IES and opens up its radiator hatches, it'll light up on everyone's sensors like a supernova. There's no other way. The ship simply _must_ release that heat. So, the question Shepard asked was not how to increase the IES capacity. The question he asked was how to release the heat without anyone noticing. Obviously, we're not talking about stopgap solutions such as releasing the heat while in the shade of some asteroid; that's too situational. What he sought was a technological solution. And he found the basis of it in a GARDIAN array laser that he and the Normandy's engineering team modified."

There was a moment of silence as everyone frowned at what he was saying.

"Lemme see if I get this straight," an admiral finally spoke up. "He… converted a laser into a heat radiator?"

"Essentially, yes," Hackett said. "A laser is, by definition, a radiation device – concentrated light radiation device. This device is a concentrated _heat_ radiation device. The idea was simple: instead of radiating in all directions, this device radiates heat in a form of a directed, laser-thin beam. As such, that heat can only be detected if you were to stand in that beam's direct path. Being that it is mounted on a turret, the beam can be directed into any generally empty part of space – such as upward – thus making the ship remain virtually invisible while still radiating heat. Normally, the IES field would scoop this heat right back up, but they've made it so that the array emits a phased frequency that disrupts the IES field at that spot, creating a tiny hole through which the heat beam will escape without being recaptured."

"Hmm… I can understand the principle, but it can't be that simple," an admiral said. "We've had lasers for centuries, but they create a lot of heat themselves… it's a cyclic problem we hadn't been able to solve – otherwise, someone would have figured it out by now."

Hackett nodded. "Apparently, Shepard had come into possession of a Prothean Orb, a data storage device that held blueprints of a Prothean particle rifle," he said to everyone's astonishment. "He couldn't replicate the rifle, but certain parts of its mechanism had helped make this heat radiation array possible."

"A working Prothean device?!" general Himura croaked. "Why didn't he send it to us?! If he has found a way to access it, then our scientists could have used the data!"

"Because it doesn't work that way," Hackett shook his head. "Due to his interaction with the Thorian of Feros, Shepard is the only man in existence that is capable of understanding what Prothean memory devices transfer to him. Everyone else sees only gibberish. True, with him being busy hunting Saren, he doesn't have sufficient time to study the blueprints, but it still is far more than we could ever do ourselves – this device attests that. I call that progress."

"And how effective is the device?"

"Sufficiently effective to enable Normandy to actively cruise for days instead of hours," Hackett replied. "Heat generation from firing the guns and aggressive combat maneuvering is still too much for it, but everything else…"

"And we will be installing it on all of our Normandy-class ships?" an admiral asked with a small smile.

"We will be installing this on _all_ of our stealth ships," Hackett replied.

The assembly went still, their faces turning sharply toward him.

"As I had mentioned," Hackett continued after a pause, "the Normandy-class constitutes 60 out of 100 ships that are being constructed in Vulcan shipyards. Of the remaining forty, twenty ships being constructed are these…"

The Normandy's projection at the center of the chamber moved away to present what appeared to be a larger ship. Everyone could tell immediately that it bore a general resemblance to a standard Alliance warship, yet that some the things were altered. The light-siphoning black paint was the most obvious one.

"What you see before you is a Perseus-class strategic cruiser," he spoke. "It is a 536 meter-long, strike craft carrying, cruiser-sized vessel. Nothing quite like it exists in the galaxy. And yes – it does possess an IES stealth system. The all-black paintjob you see is the further expansion on that. It's an electro-dynamic vantablack-IV coating, designed to reduce even the possibility of a visual detection by absorbing light reflections."

An admiral leaned forward intently, speaking gravely, "Steven… where did this thing come from? How come nobody heard of it? I mean, who authorized this project, and when?"

"I did," Krieg stated. "When I saw the blueprints of the Normandy for the first time a year ago, I felt that the potential for stealth vessels was immense. While the galaxy watched with close attention to the progress of the Normandy's construction and development, another team had been covertly working on the Perseus, closely copying the Normandy's progress and applying it to a cruiser-weight vessel one step at a time. The result is what you see before you. The SC-1, Strategic Cruiser One, was launched seven days ago and has been officially commissioned early this morning. All it awaits now is its commanding officer."

"This just keeps getting better and better," someone muttered incredulously.

"Wait for it," Hackett said seriously, then focused their attention to the vessel's holo-projection. "The idea behind the Perseus was to create an unlimited range, extreme endurance stealth vessel, capable of operating for extreme periods of time behind enemy lines and not only be self-sufficient but be capable of performing massive and _repeated_ precision strikes against crucial targets without being detected.

"To ensure its endurance and make it as independent from resupply as possible, we needed it to be at least a cruiser-sized vessel so that we could equip it with a fabrication workshop. To ensure it can quickly and precisely project its firepower across the region, we needed it to have a large number of strike and shuttle craft, thus having it act as a carrier. And in order for us to actually equip it with an IES, we needed it to be sufficiently small. The result was the Perseus.

"It may bear a similarity to a standard-profile Alliance cruiser, but unlike it, it has no broadside guns," he continued. "Instead, its port and starboard wings house flight decks that carry a total of 70 manned strike craft, 20 heavy attack drones, plus a compliment of twelve UT-47s for its surface strike teams – of which there will be a single marine company. In addition, two platoons – a total of eight – of the Scorpions that Sokolov's teams have made will be delivered and housed in a hangar bay at the bottom of the ship that was originally intended for M-44 Hammerheads to deploy from."

"Smart move with the Scorpions," an admiral said. "But let me ask you, are the fighter craft made to be stealth as well?"

"To a limited degree, yes," Hackett replied. "They are too small, and their IES cannot be as powerful as the one on the Normandy, but we have managed to supplement that with the active masking system used on the Kodiaks. It makes them extremely difficult to detect, even when they get close enough for their attack run. Of course, we're working on improving those solutions even as we speak."

"And what about the heavy assault drones? How are they controlled? Tightbeam?"

"No, they're pretty much autonomous and have no antennae, just like is the case with Rampart mechs, so we're experimenting with rudimentary QEC with these ones," Hackett said. "It maintains Perseus's stealth and prevents hacking, and since they are not used for dogfights, all the data they need to receive are coordinates – which is no more than a few hundred bytes of data, so the bandwidth won't be a problem."

"Yes, I see… this will keep many of our pilots alive if the drones could be the ones to perform assaults on heavy targets such as dreadnoughts."

"And what about its weapons systems?"

"The Perseus was never designed to be a frontline combatant; all of you must've realized that already. Its main assault weapons are fighters. The only weapons Perseus itself has are ten javelin launcher tubes with a complement of forty missiles – which, in essence, makes it less armed than an Alamo-class frigate – and they are only meant to be used in an absolute emergency as a means to ensure the Perseus's retreat. To help in this, the Perseus has an array of no less than 32 GARDIAN turrets. The first vessel of the class has had two of them temporarily converted to tightbeam radiation devices to use with its IES, but the remaining Perseus-class vessels will have additional two dedicated TBRD turrets instead."

"Interesting… I assume it is capable of replenishing its own ordnance and fuel?" another admiral asked.

"Fully – of both it and all of its strike craft. It is facilitated by a pair of Carrier Service Vessels, like the ones on the Einstein-class, whose job is to scoop Hydrogen and Helium from a gas giant's atmospheres and bring it up to the vessel, where a grade-III converter will process them into fuel. As for replenishing the ordnance, as well as repairing and manufacturing its own strike craft it has an integrated grade-III mining/manufacturing/assembly workshop – like the ones on carriers. It, together with its CSVs can deploy their mining lasers, scoop up the ore, then process it into whatever it needs."

"I like what I'm hearing very much," an admiral said. "This ship will really have an unlimited range and extreme endurance."

"And I assume its barriers will be just as above-grade as Normandy's are?" another one asked.

"The Perseus has an Everest-class eezo core," Hackett said. "You do the math."

"Who's this first ship's commanding officer?"

"Officially, one hasn't been assigned yet," Hackett replied. "But Captain Anderson has already been selected for the job."

Anderson fought hard to keep his face straight on hearing the news. Hackett continued:

"His experience in previously having already flown both a cruiser and a stealth vessel, as well as being an N7 operative with extensive knowledge of black ops make him a logical candidate."

The admiral hummed, then nodded at Anderson. "Congratulations from all of us here, Captain. We will be eager to hear your reports about this vessel."

"Yes, sir," Anderson replied levelly, even though his heart was pounding at a thousand beats per minute.

"And what about the other class of vessel other than the Normandy and Perseus?" another admiral asked. "You have mentioned that there are 60 Normandy and 20 Perseus hulls in Vulcan shipyards, which leaves us with another 20 to fill the one hundred construction bays. Are they as amazing as what we've heard so far?"

"No, unfortunately," Hackett replied. "Five of them are carriers, but another 15 are an experimental battlecruiser made on a modified York hull. Its broadside cannons had been replaced by javelin missile tubes and bays. The idea behind this philosophy is that since broadsides are almost exclusively used when ships engage in medium-to-knife-fight ranges that are already best suited for missiles, then that's what those launcher tubes should be best-suited for."

"It's like that experimental missile cruiser, Project Tremor, from a few years ago, isn't it?"

"I liked that idea even then," another man said. "I don't know why we waited for this long to implement it. Disruptor missiles punch harder than main guns, and broadsides have barely 20% of the main gun's yield."

"Eezo was the greatest bottleneck," Krieg declared. "Disruptor missiles require an eezo core for their warp fields to activate, and we didn't want to sling too much of the stuff all around. Now that we have significantly greater lodes of eezo at our disposal…" he left the rest unsaid.

"Hmm… Makes sense," an admiral said. "What else do we have?"

Hackett made a quick review of the datapad before him.

"Nothing anymore," he said. "With missile cruisers, we have covered all of the planned topics in the point of agenda that concerned ships. Does anyone have any other questions concerning this?"

There were a couple of moments of silence.

"Frankly, with this much of an information dump, I can't remember what I'm supposed to do for the rest of the day," an admiral said, her voice bearing a glorious British accent, which raised a few chuckles.

"Well, you can't say it was boring, at least," another one said.

"Alright then," Krieg spoke up, "then we shall move to the final point of today's agenda, which is discussing miscellaneous. As it is usual, this is to see whether you have any suggestions, questions, or would like to bring to light any potential issues. So, let's hear it."

"I'd suggest that we schedule a second, likely smaller meeting, just for the sake of us stamping impressions concerning today's topics. Few things can come to mind as suddenly."

"Fair enough," Krieg said. "I'll have my secretary prepare a date sometime during the next week or the one after that."

The admirals nodded amongst each other.

"I have had another idea, actually," an admiral spoke up. "I know that the Normandy is no longer under official Alliance command, but I feel that it'd be good to check out what's going on out there. After all, it's an Alliance crew lend-leased to a Spectre."

"You wish to make an inspection?"

"Call it a personal interest," he replied. "That ship _was_ supposed to become a part of my 63rd. Most of the data about its performance comes from Shepard's reports, and I don't doubt it's accurate, but how much of it was caused by him being a Spectre, rather than something that comes from the Alliance. I feel that it'd be good for us to see for ourselves."

"I have no issues with that, but it cannot be an official inspection," Krieg warned. "The Normandy is in a peculiar position, so whatever you do, you must do unofficially. And even if you do find things out of order, there is no point in trying to enforce any corrections; and with results like these, I don't see the point to it."

"Understood, sir, I will keep that in mind," the admiral replied.

Krieg nodded. "Alright – anything else?"

There were murmurs and headshakes.

"Then I declare this council adjourned."

The admirals began shuffling out of their seats, their talk eager as they began discussing the aftermath of the meeting.

Hackett reached out to Anderson. "Stay. You will receive official orders from me regarding the Perseus."

Anderson finally allowed his grin to explode across his face, nodding.

As everyone shuffled out, only Anderson, Hackett, and Krieg remained.

"These are your official orders by which you assume command of the Perseus," Hackett said as handed the datapad to Anderson. "A shuttle is already waiting for you with your belongings on it to take you to your new ship."

"What's my mission?" Anderson asked.

Hackett shared a grave look with Krieg.

"Officially, your mission is to test the Perseus," he said. "Unofficially, it is to test a new ship detection system."

Anderson raised an eyebrow, making a questioning grimace.

"A sensor array?" he asked, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously, his gears turning. "Something tells me this isn't an ordinary sensor array, is it?"

"You have a good head on your shoulders, Anderson," Krieg approved from where he sat in his chair like a director that held all the strings. "You're right, it isn't an ordinary detection system. Tell me, what are the two most important detection methods in existence?"

"Standard thermal detection, and the newer pulsar system," Anderson said.

"What are their limitations?"

"Light lag with the thermals, obviously," Anderson said, playing along. "Pulsar doesn't have that problem because it essentially works like a comm-buoy, accelerating an energy signal through an FTL, not unlike the FTL radar."

"And the resulting pulse of dark energy that bounces back from the detected object will return just as quickly to the ship for it to be detected," Krieg added.

"Except that it makes the ship light up like a goddamn supernova on every single goddamn sensor in a 300-AU radius," Anderson said. "And since it detects every object, even the tiniest one, its effective range ain't greater than two or three AUs at best because of the saturation. Frankly, the thing is better used as a search-and-rescue scanner or a deep-penetrative scan to see what's inside a shielded base."

"About right," Krieg nodded. "So what would happen if you had a passive sensor that had a virtually instantaneous detection of every ship in the system?"

"I'd ask first how does it do what it does," Anderson challenged.

Krieg snorted, smirking, and rapped his nails against the desktop. "The dark energy effect of active mass effect fields creates a spatial distortion," he said. "This scanner detects those spatial distortions over great distances with zero lag. It is undetectable by conventional means. It doesn't use light, it doesn't use thermals, and it doesn't use any kind of energy signal. All it does is tap into the fabric of space to detect huge distortions such as planets and stars, and active mass effect fields. It's called a gravdar."

"The sensor's operators will have all the technical specs and deeper scientific method behind it," Hackett said. "Suffice it to say that this sensor will detect active mass effect fields only, and the bigger the source, the farther away it can be detected. Initial tests show that it cannot detect a fighter craft at more than half AUs of distance, but it can detect a dreadnought at almost a hundred."

Anderson recoiled in amazement.

"I see you understand the power of this new tech," Hackett said.

"Understand? This kind of sensor is a complete game changer!" he said. "Why wasn't this mentioned at the meeting?"

"The more people know, the greater the chance something will slip out and enable our rivals to catch it," Krieg said. "And you had put it just as accurately as it gets: it's a game changer, a _too big_ of a game changer. It can detect a stealth ship without any problem, and it can detect it hours before the standard thermal sensor even knows there was something there."

"Well, then, pardon my French, sir, but why the hell did we push for all those Normandy-class vessels into production then?" Anderson demanded incredulously.

"Because you cannot maintain an edge if you're stagnating and hoping no one invents something better; you can only maintain an edge by going forward, and by _constantly_ pushing forward," Krieg said. "It might seem trivial, but you testing that sensor _inside and out_ , and finding out _every single goddamn quirk_ it has is the only chance for us to find a countermeasure to it – a countermeasure that would be employed on our stealth ships the first chance we get!"

Anderson hummed, nodding. "Yeah, I suppose I understand it all too perfectly. And after that is done, we find a countermeasure to the countermeasure. And so on, and so forth, until kingdom come."

"Like militaries had done since time immemorial," Hackett said in a tone as if he was making a toast.

Anderson shook his head, smirking. "So, you said I need to track down the Normandy," he said. "Fair enough, but I don't think it'll be enough to test this sensor properly. Marcus and Jaina Shepard aren't stupid, and their crew was handpicked by me; I can guarantee they'd notice someone was following them, and I _guarantee_ they'd find a way to give me the slip before even I realized how to trick the gravdar."

Hackett nodded. "That's why the Perseus will be joined by these two ships." He passed him a datapad. "They'll work as your escorts, and you'll operate as a squadron. You will use them to test the gravdar too."

Anderson frowned as he looked over the information. "SR-1001 and SR-1002? Are these Normandy class?!"

"The first two non-prototype models," Hackett replied. "The mainstay models will get a four-digit designation. Being a prototype, the Normandy will remain a single-digit, as is standard practice."

"I get that, but where the hell did these two come from in the first place?" Anderson asked incredulously. "I thought they all needed another forty days before they finished construction."

"The SR-1001, the Red Cliff, was originally the SR-Alfa."

Anderson's eyebrows rose, and he nodded in understanding. "The testbed for the weapons systems and propulsion for the SR-1."

Hackett nodded. "It already had the near-identical superstructure, eezo core, and all the systems installed, so it only needed to have the SR hull installed together with the proper IES heat sinks. The SR-1002, the Kursk, was made from the parts kept in reserve for if something went wrong during construction of the Normandy and either it or the Alfa blew up. The moment it was shown that the SR-1 would be a resounding success, we pushed these two into a construction dock and brought them fully up to snuff."

"This will be the first time I command a squadron," Anderson commented.

"You know it yourself that you're more than capable," Hackett replied. "Commanding a carrier task unit is a fast-track to an admiral's position… Especially in this case, since testing the gravdar will be only the first part of your mission."

Anderson looked back grimly. He knew there was more to this from the get-go.

"Once you ascertain the effectiveness of the gravdar, your true mission will begin," Hackett said. "Your will cross into batarian space undetected and stay there. There is no specific target. Your job will be to stalk. Find their patrols, stalk them, get as close as possible without being detected, see their behavior, their routes, their patterns, their hidden assets if possible, and most importantly of all, devise methods for sudden kill strikes.

"This mission is ambitious and important. As such, it has no timeframe. Until you are certain that you have the full grasp of the gravdar, and have your squardron operating smoothly to your satisfaction, you will not even begin the attempt to cross the border. The location of the crossing does not matter, where you go after that does not matter, how long it takes you to get there does not matter. What matters is _certainty_. We want to be _certain_ that we can do this, and we want to be _certain_ of the methods that will get us there. Am I being clear on that?"

"Perfectly, sir," Anderson replied seriously.

Hackett nodded. "The Perseus has a QEC that links directly to me, and we will maintain a regular correspondence. As of now, you report directly to me and no one else."

"Understood."

"Any questions?"

Anderson smirked. "Can we get on with it? I want to see my damn ship!"

Hackett chuckled, then nodded him toward the doors. "Get outta here. Serviceman Perry should be waiting outside; he will take you to the shuttle."

Anderson stood at attention and gave a crisp salute, receiving a nod back from Hackett, after which he immediately left the conference room, his pace brisk and eager.

As the doors behind him closed, Krieg motioned at Hackett with his chin.

"Let's see it," he said.

At that, both him and Hackett immediately switched off their omnitools, removing the bands from their wrists and placing them in a shielded box. Revealing a hidden command console at his desk that sported real physical activation buttons, Krieg inserted a physical key and flipped the big red switch next to it.

A moment later, a powerful EMP swept the internal area of the chamber, shutting down everything, lights included, leaving only the light that reflected off of station's gleaming white hull from outside the window.

Krieg nodded at Hackett. "Show me," he said.

Hackett removed a tiny shielded box from his inner pocket and opened it up to reveal a small holoprojector that he placed on the desktop.

"These are 48 hours old," Hackett said.

As it activated, a set of images appeared, showing five huge construction piers surrounded by a misty blue nebular cloud. It was the final five of the one hundred hidden in Epsilon Eridani, the ones which were supposed to be constructing five carriers.

"That was a skillful dodge earlier, by the way," Krieg said. "When Xin asked what the remaining piers were producing other than Normandy and Perseus hulls."

"I told him the truth," Hackett said. "They are producing carriers."

"You just hadn't told him what kind of carriers exactly," Krieg agreed as he watched the images over. "The most ambitious plan the Alliance has ever envisioned: an answer to the Destiny Ascension."

"More than the Destiny Ascension," Hackett replied. "Each of them is 2400 meters of length – almost as long as quarian Liveships."

"Except that, unlike Liveships, these are actually true warships," Krieg said as he browsed the images reverently. "True supercarriers. Fully independent mobile military bases."

Hackett nodded. "This ship will be able to project such a great power at such an insane range that nobody will have an answer for it," he said. "Being able to move anywhere, at any range, it will be far from a sitting duck like our military space stations are. Nobody will be able to catch it; nobody will be able to stop it."

Krieg nodded absentmindedly as he switched the view to the holo-projection of a complete model, contemplating.

"We won't be able to produce any more than five, Steven," he said after a moment. "Even with all that new budget and that recent wealth of resources. A vessel of this size… It'll take almost two years to complete all five of them in parallel, and after that, we can kiss our ability to make any more for at least a decade at least, maybe two."

"Or maybe we get a Council seat in the meantime and keep the train rolling," Hackett replied.

"I was never the kind of man to put much hope in hypothetical scenarios," Krieg replied. "The Council won't grant us that seat any time soon unless something so drastic happens that they end up desperate enough. But whether they do or don't give us that seat, it doesn't matter. With the geth striking, the Alliance had gotten one slap over the nose too many. The people are realizing that the thin bubble of their comfort zone had burst. They are waking up."

"It's about damn time," Hackett growled.

...

* * *

...

The heels clicked audibly as their owner walked across the dark-tiled floor of the large chamber. Walking up to the singular chair at the center of it, she passed the datapad to the man that sat there in front of the numerous data screens, the outlines of his gray hair illuminated by their warm glow.

"It is confirmed that all of the depicted improvements to the ship design come from Commander Shepard directly," the woman said. "The working title of the project is Stealth Recon 2.0."

The man's focused gaze scanned through the datapad's contents quickly and precisely, bringing the butt of his cigarette to his lips and taking a deep drag, the cigarette's tip shining brightly and releasing crinkling sounds as the tobacco burned.

The man kept the lungful of smoke for a few moments, then passed the datapad back.

"Send it to the Minuteman station," he said as he exhaled. "This is now their top priority. Have them analyze and improve all of Shepard's improvements in whatever way possible. Make sure that eliminating them from the blueprints is not an option. Also, I want the Hannibal cell to merge into the Minuteman; I think we have just found a perfect housing for the Luna Base AI once its rewrite and upgrade is complete."

"Understood," she said as she took the offered datapad back. "May I ask why is keeping Shepard's improvements so important? Some of them don't exactly fit into our methods of operation."

The man was silent for a moment, merely dragging smoke from his cigarette.

"It is becoming obvious that Shepard is a formidable man," he said. "It would be of great benefit to us if we were to have him on our side, and I'm not just talking about stopping him from interfering with any more of our operations. A man as capable as him can be a _powerful_ asset."

"You intend to bribe him by offering him a ship?" the woman asked skeptically.

"Of course not. A man such as Shepard will not be swayed by material wealth, but what he will be swayed if he feels that he has found an ally who is willing to help him due to noble causes. The ship would come into play later. What we would need to do first is take steps to convince him that we can be trustworthy, only after which we would take steps to slowly alienate others from him. He needs to see others as unreliable so that he chooses to come to us of his own volition. At that point, we would need to have something to use as an assurance and an incentive. The ship would merely be one of many ways by which we could ensure his long-term loyalty, but it would be nonetheless an important one."

"How do you suggest we proceed with convincing him?" she asked.

"Small steps, one at a time," the man replied. "Providing a key piece of information, or even so much as a heads-up at a key moment can mean much more than all grand revelations combined. This will require careful considerations."

The woman inclined her head, a perfectly-shaped eyebrow rising up. "I see," she said. "Will you require anything of me?"

"Not at the moment, but rest assured that your skills will come into play one way or the other," the man said. "You have your tasks. Dismissed."

The woman turned on her heel and walked out of the chamber, leaving the man's sharp, penetrative cybernetic eyes to gaze upon the huge, dimming star in the distance, the gears turning in his head, constantly forging plans upon plans.

...


	28. Chapter 28 - Hot Trail

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _Hello everyone, I'm back after a two-month pause. I'm sorry for it; it wasn't planned. It was a major case of writer's block, the first big case I had in over a year._

 _I do not know how it is for other writers, but for me, it was like the sentences themselves were fighting me. There were days that I'd spend writing one single sentence over and over again, and no matter what I wrote, how I wrote it, how I wrapped it, the sentence just refused to look and feel good. The scenes that I imagined would refuse to be transferred onto paper. It looked clunky, haphazard, and whenever I'd read it, the flow of the story felt like driving a flat-tired car over potholes._

 _So, I went to watch some sports comedy anime and got cured._

 _I'd like to think that what I've posted is much better than what it would have been if I had just rushed it. You be the judge._

 _Also, thank you all for your amazing reviews! There were so many that I'm pretty certain that I've missed some of you in the rush to reply to everyone! I apologize for that, I really do. I like talking to you guys and your praise felt amazing, especially since many of you have a lot of smart things to say and interesting questions to ask! And crossing the threshold of 700 follows? Wow! And this story has now climbed to the third-from-the-top page when browsing Mass Effect category by favs/follows. Top 75 stories. Wow… feels like a bronze medal!_

 _So, here we go…_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 13.10.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes, Intrigue, Militaristic…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 28 – Hot Trail**

.

 _Planet: Tuntau – Phoenix System, Argos Rho Cluster_

The two older models of a turian and batarian frigate slowly approached the white-and-blue surface of the planet. The dust clouds and mist of water droplets rose as they hovered several meters above ground at the edge of the vast, desolate, marshy flatland, right where the plain abruptly began to give way to rolling terrain.

The glowing markers were already set up for them, waiting, and the two ships touched down to their designated location, their cargo bay doors promptly began to lower, armed squads of pirates readily descending down the ramp to secure the immediate area.

The captain of the turian frigate marched out of the vessel, looking around the white and blue desolate landscape before his eyes homed in on the sight of the busy and well-organized pirate base sprawled in front of them.

Small temporary habitats and warehouses were encircled with entrenched positions, sensor arrays, and turrets that were guarding the LZ. Two freighters and another frigate were already there in addition to the two that had just landed, and in the center of the field complex was a large main structure that served as a command center.

The turian captain nodded in satisfaction and descended the ramp all the way, joining up with his batarian counterpart from the other frigate. They both walked toward the base headquarters, escorted by several of their men until they came up to a single turian that waited for them, his hands folded across his chest.

"Hurlark. Haliat," the waiting turian greeted the two captains coolly.

"Actus," the turian frigate's captain greeted him back, his voice bearing a sickly sweet tone.

"What's the situation up top?" Actus asked, nodding up toward the skies.

Haliat chuckled.

"As clear as _lacris_ ," he replied. "There was not a single Alliance ship in the entire sector. The apes are obviously still reeling from the geth attack, fortifying the systems they have. It is obvious they cannot spare any more patrols."

"I will not bank my chips on that," Actus retorted sharply. "You've left monitoring probes, right?"

"Of course we did," the batarian captain replied with his imperious deep bass. "Haliat may feel comfortable with the Alliance's apparent absence, but something like that just makes me paranoid."

Haliat sighed, almost theatrically. "Yes, we've set up the probes, all over the system. There is no way even a courier shuttle will slip by."

"Courier ships are not what worries me," Actus replied curtly. "I, for one, am not nearly as comfortable as you are, Haliat. I don't know how much of the reports from this past couple of months have reached you in the Terminus, but both the Attican Traverse and the Skillian Verge are in chaos."

"Why, isn't that the whole point?" Haliat asked.

"Chaos amongst our ranks, Haliat," Actus clarified irritably.

Haliat was brought up short. Hurlark not so much.

"So it is true," the batarian said. "There were some tremors all over the Attican Traverse too. Several other pirate bases near the border with the Skillian Verge had been struck, and it was without any warning whatsoever."

"And they've had their probes up and running?" Actus asked. "The entire personnel was found dead? No survivors? All crates and vaults picked clean – is that it?"

Hurlark nodded slowly. "Yes… It shouldn't have been possible. All free entrepreneurs' lives depend on top-notch early warning systems. To think they've been completely bypassed…"

"Well they have, and it's even worse in the Verge," Actus growled as he turned on his heel and began walking back toward the command center, the other two captains closely at his sides. "Over 90% of our friendly assets had been taken out over the past two months. Dantius, Anural, Selin – all dead. Saleon, too; we've found what was left of him on his ship. Whoever did him in, wanted to leave a particularly grizzly message; his body was destroyed from within by his own mutagens."

"So, they've taken out a major chunk of our weapons, drugs, slaving, _and_ organ harvesting operations?" Hurlark hissed. "Are you sure it's not our rivals that are responsible?"

"Damn right I'm sure. It hasn't been any different with any of them, either. Even Darius's organization has been completely obliterated! Wiped off the map! All of his ships are destroyed, and the Alliance has moved in to establish a presence. The only one who's had half a brains to disappear was that Blake woman, and frankly, I'm thinking that she's had the right idea."

Haliat hissed. "So you're just running away?" he demanded disdainfully. "Giving ground to humans after all the blood we've spilled to keep them away? To those pathetic pyjacks?!"

"I'm not in this for petty zealotry, Haliat, I'm in it for the profits! You want to get yourself killed? Be my guest! Just keep me out of it. If rumors are true, the one who's responsible for all this is your precious Lion of Elysium flying in that rumored frigate prototype anyway, so you might just get the chance to meet him again."

Haliat's visage darkened behind his helm's mask.

"So it is true," he growled. "You're right. I do want him. But not just him; I want his woman even more. She was there, at Elysium, and a little birdy tells me she is flying that ship with him. She did worse damage to me back then. Worse humiliation by far. I'd wish nothing more than to be killing them for weeks while making the other one watch."

The batarian was watching the exchange impassively from the side, then glanced at Actus, nodding sideways at Haliat.

"What's he talking about?"

Actus snorted.

"Our friend Haliat has one serious bone to pick against one Commander Jaina Shepard. You see, the official story is that Marcus Shepard organized the civilians into a defensive force, earning himself the fame, but in what universe do you think a bunch of pampered tourists on a vacation could ever be truly able to fight off a horde of hardened pirates, even with an N7 leading them? It was a paltry thing, only good enough to slow us down a bit. No. The real truth is that there was another N7 commando there, Shepard's newly-wedded wife; turns out we interrupted them on their honey moon. He might have organized the civilians so they don't get captured, but they wouldn't have been able to do shit if she hadn't infiltrated behind us and wreaked havoc on our lines. She's the one who actually caused total chaos and saved the entire planet. To think: one woman! Our side couldn't mount an organized assault with our ranks getting harassed like that, allowing the civilians to withstand our attempts. And, at one point, she even came face to face with Haliat here." Actus snorted mirthlessly. "He had no choice but to… retreat."

Haliat's helmet might as well have been glowing red-hot from all the anger the turian radiated.

"How come only he is lauded as the Lion of Elysium, then?" the batarian wondered. "Why hadn't we heard of her? Perhaps we could have organized a hit…"

"No, we couldn't. The pyjacs were smart," Actus replied. "They knew they needed to keep their top spec ops soldiers' identities hidden for covert ops, so they covered it up. As you can see, our friend here has quite a bone to pick with the two, and I'm guessing that that's why he has asked me to procure this particular package that the two of you are here for."

"You're right. That's _exactly_ why I came here," Haliat replied, his voice dripping oily acid. "I came to destroy those two pyjacks, and I'm going to do it so it leaves a message. I'm going to have one of them blown up sky-high, and I'm gonna have the other one watch helplessly while I laugh in their face. I'm going to exact a revenge for everything!"

Actus snorted.

"Well, fortunately for you, the probe you've wanted has been found by some prospectors at the fringe of the Hierarchy space, and they've sold it to some sympathetic elements in the Hierarchy that have graciously sold it, in turn, to me. It's confirmed to be Alliance make from the period of the 314 Incident, booby-trapped with a nuke. A crude device, but safely disarmed at the moment. If anything, it will be a poetic justice to human encroachment."

"Good," Haliat crooned. "And I have the merchandize that you were looking for," he nodded toward the ships, where the hover-carts were unloading the crates from the cargo bays. "I'm sure that the compensation will be most satisfactory."

"I have no doubt," Actus replied. "Let's get inside. We should finish this as quickly as possible. I intend to abandon this rock within eight hours tops, and to leave it as barren as a krogan female, lest I risk someone sniffing us out. Rillik, take over from here!"

"Yes sir," his turian right-hand man replied, immediately moving off in the opposite direction and beginning to issue commands.

The work picked up the pace as the three men walked into the command center, leaving their numerous henchmen to the outside work.

The number of illegal or illegally obtained goods on the piece of rock that was the Tuntau kept rising by the second as the frigate, freighters, and the warehouses were being unloaded in preparation for the tradeoffs. The turian overseer was managing the whole affair of the goods transfer with professional precision while also handling the disposition of the troops at the same time. Tanks were rolling down and hunkering at the defensible positions, temporary automated turrets were being erected, and the four gunships were going through the technical checkup before they would begin to provide areal sweeps.

Having issued the few final instructions, the turian overseer moved to the edge of the base perimeter, taking a moment of respite as he let his eyes wander across the flat valley. For a few moments, he let his mind go pleasurably blank.

There was a blink of light in the distance, followed by a whizz to his left.

What followed was a thunderous explosion that rocked the air, sending shrapnel all over the place and dropping bodies to the ground. The shockwave struck the turian's back and he rolled with it, coming up into a crouch with his rifle already in his hands.

When he turned, he saw the tank behind him was burning.

The people near it were dead lumps on the ground, and the ones further out were reeling from the blast. In the split second that it all took place, another whizz-boom combo exploded through the air, and another one of their tanks met the same fate.

Everyone was scrambling for cover now, their weapons drawing as they sought the enemy out.

They were greeted by a dense hailstorm of heavy machinegun bullets that began raining at them from the direction of the vast plains where the first blink of light had come from, forcing their heads back down into whatever cover they could find. The turian overseer risked a glance over the edge of the hillock he took cover behind, zooming in with his helm's built-in electronic binoculars. His eyes widened.

A pair of armored hovercraft was charging low across the plain toward their position, the huge billows of dust trailing behind them, indicating speeds that surpassed those of city skycars.

"Incoming hovercraft!" the turian roared into the comms. "Get those gunships into the air, NOW! What the hell are our turrets doing?!"

His eyes shot toward the nearby turret, only to see it bursting as a high-velocity round tore straight through it, blasting up a huge exit hole like a flower blossom. The turret next to it went up a split-second later as the second round sliced straight through its neck joint, popping it off like it was a head of a bug.

"Gunships to air! Gunships to air!" he screamed into the comms as throngs of pirates and mercenaries surged from the other sides of the base toward the besieged positions.

The batarian-made gunships finally began to rise up from their pads, gaining speed as they advanced toward the encroaching enemy. Before any of them even managed to gain the proper strafing altitude, the first gunship's wing was sliced off by the enemy round that went straight through its shields as they weren't even there.

Its port thruster gone, the gunship spun wildly around its long axis, crashing straight down into the defense lines and killing dozens in the blast.

A second enemy round pierced the second gunship straight through its center, the vessel dying in the air and falling under inertia some distance beyond the perimeter.

A swarm of small missiles surged from the oncoming enemy vehicles after the two surviving gunships going evasive, the flurry of explosions catching up to one, with only one managing to survive unscathed.

As the damaged gunship managed to land with black smoke billowing from its every pore, the final one managed to acquire targets and engage into assault strafe. Only to have a pair of guided missiles slam into its rear, taking out its shields.

" _They came from behind!"_ The pilot managed, before a hailstorm of heavy rounds from the rear tore his defense-stripped vessel to shreds, bringing its down in a ball of fire.

The turian lieutenant's heat shot back toward the source of the second barrage, only for his eyes to widen in shock as he witnessed a pair of Alliance heavy mech platforms cresting the hill on the far side of the base.

As soon as the mechs' hand-mounted guns crested the top, the two began raining heavy suppressive fire down into the defender's backs, a whole squad of Alliance troops rising over the hill's top with them to provide precise marksman support.

Before the defenders even managed to turn against the rear assault, the two assaulting hovercraft were on top of them, sending a thundering boom from their afterburners as they swooped over the base.

The assault vehicles banked in a high arc above them before angling back down and launching a decimating strafing run with their machineguns and missiles. As the destructive ordnance blanketed the ground, the Alliance troops and walkers advanced quickly down the slope of the hill, using cover to maximum effect to the frustration of anyone who managed to poke their head long enough to target them.

"Dammit!" the overseer cursed as his target ducked back behind its cover and the hovercraft machineguns sprayed across his own cover, sending him back down. The numbers were far on their side, but they've lost too many already. It would be a pyrrhic victory at best.

It was then that he heard the distinct sound of the massive engines spinning up, bringing his hopes back up.

Risking a quick glance over the edge of his cover, he witnessed both Haliat's and Hurlrk's frigates slowly begin to rise from the ground surrounded in a swirl of white dust as their GARDIAN turrets cycled through their activation.

He sank back down, grinning viciously as he tapped his comms to issue new orders:

"This is Rillik! Our ships are engaging, so as soon as the frigates take out those hovercraft, begin the counter –"

A thunderous explosion interrupted him as a starship-grade round struck down high from the skies, gouging straight through Haliat's frigate and impacting the ground underneath, inverting the earth and sending a blanketing shockwave through the base.

The second round followed not one second later, slicing straight through Hurlark's frigate and setting off a massive explosion as its fuel tanks ruptured.

Everyone who wasn't in the cover got knocked off their feet as the combined shockwave swept the base. The two dying hulks themselves seemed to hover for a moment more before they fell back down to the ground, a fiery inferno consuming the twisted metal into oblivion.

The turian raised his ringing head after what seemed like an eternity, and looked up and around.

A single ship, its profile sleek like an aircraft and unlike any other ship he had seen, glided slowly through the air, human letters on its side marking a human name: Normandy SR-1.

 _How did they know we were here?_ He wondered in complete shock. _We were here for less than sixteen hours! Stealth ship or not, there's no way they could have followed our tracks! We've covered them! They couldn't have known we were here! They COULDN'T HAVE!_

That was the last thing he thought before a round burst through his head.

.

* * *

.

"I still cannot believe my network had managed to catch the intel about this this quickly!" Liara said almost incredulously as she looked around the base's interior, but nobody could be blind to the sheer pride in her stance and tone.

The pirate base headquarters' interior stood cleared before them. The bodies of pirates and mercenaries were strewn around the floors and draped over the crates and railings like limp carpets, and charred walls and blown debris decorated the drab interior.

"You're surprised you've caught it?" Jaina smiled, her arms crossed over her chest. "I'm not. Half the things we managed to do in the past couple of months was thanks to you."

"I'm just glad we've managed to catch it on time," Liara amended. "Imagine if Haliat actually managed to plant that bomb."

"Just goes to show how valuable your work is." She smirked. "Looks like your information network has spread its little wings quite a bit now. I'm thinking it'll raise one hell of a storm before you know it."

Liara's smile faltered a bit.

"Yeah," she said. "Still now word on Benezia, though."

Jaina realized it must've been something she said that triggered that line of thought with the young asari. So did Marcus, who stood next to her.

"You're still feeling responsible," he said to the young asari.

"Actually, the more accurate term for what I feel would be 'awkward'," she provided with a lecturing tone. "I've severed ties with Benezia a long time ago, so there's no responsibility, just…" she shrugged. " _Awkward_."

Marcus chuckled. "Yes, I see what you mean… I bet that a kiss or two will make it go away, though."

He moved off, leaving a stunned Liara behind with Jaina.

"He always knew what to say to a girl," Jaina mused wistfully.

Liara looked incredulously at her. "You can't possibly let this slide!" she said, not really knowing what she was complaining about.

Jaina scrunched up her face in a cute smile that she shared with Liara.

"You're right. Him promising kisses to our girlfriend at a time and place where it'd be inappropriate to deliver? Unacceptable!"

"I… I'm not your girlfriend yet!" Liara protested futilely as she fought off a blush. "I still haven't said yes or no."

Jaina made a mock-baffled face. "But who ever said you had any choice in the matter?"

An elated grin exploded on Liara's face as she delivered a swift light punch to Jaina's shoulder, making them both laugh.

For the past month, the two women had gotten much closer. All three of them had gotten much closer. Yet still, all three of them danced around the elephant in the room. But it was not any kind of teen-like awkwardness that was to blame, but the mission itself and the place they were on. Oh, the Normandy had grown to be their home, but it was a small home. Things got noticed. It wouldn't be right to the crew to see their two commanders wooing a third girl around. A familial rapport and trust needed to be built up first and that took time. So the three of them danced, and danced, and danced. And bantered. And teased. And ever more mercilessly at that…

And the arousing tension grew. And grew. And then grew some more.

It was what all three of them were aware of. And they were aware that it would either burst or spill over, whichever came first. It was only a matter of when.

Jaina sighed contently at that thought, knowing that Liara was thinking just the same.

"But you're right, you know," Jaina said, breaking the silence. "We can't let him get away with it. He is too confident for his own good." She narrowed her eyes conspiratorially. "I think he needs to be put down a peg."

"I hope you have a proper method for punishing him for it?" Liara demanded, folding her arms under her chest and raising a shapely eyebrow.

Jaina raised her eyebrow right back at her. "Oh? Don't tell me you've forgotten all those things about teasing a guy I've been telling you about?" she asked innocently.

Liara's lips were parted in a small smile. "No…," she said after a moment. "You think I should…?"

Jaina squinted conspiratorially. "Oh, I think he deserves to stew in his own juices for a change, don't you?"

An evil little glint appeared in Liara's eyes.

"You're right," she said huskily. "He does indeed."

They turned their heads to where Marcus had observed the proceedings of the rest of their team at the center of the vast warehouse hall, sending their conniving little smirks his way. Marcus perked up, tilting his head as if he was listening to something far off, then turned around to look suspiciously back at the two women.

"Ah, shit," Jaina muttered as she and Liara quickly turned to each other to avoid his gaze. "That Prothean sense of his is really annoying!"

"People's intent carries through the air if it's fresh and potent," Liara agreed.

"We're good; he hadn't picked up the full intent, just that we were plotting something. Don't worry; he's doomed. It's just, we better get our heads back into gear for now," Jaina said, the two of them forcefully turning serious again.

Marcus huffed through his nose at the two of them, letting things slide, then returned his attention back to the business at hand.

The few surviving enemies were being dragged there by the few of the ground team personnel and made to sit on the floor and their hands tied behind their backs. Seven turians, four batarians, two salarians, and one asari – those were all who had somehow managed to avoid the lethal wrath of their captors. Amongst them, Jaina could recognize both Haliat and Actus with their backs turned toward her.

Marcus looked back at her and nodded grimly.

"Show time," Jaina said to Liara, a cold visage falling on her face as the two of them walked out with Marcus to where the captives were being held.

Jaina stood, stone-faced, scrutinizing the captives with a cold gaze as Marcus began to pace slowly in front of them, absorbing the sensations the pirates were radiating with his Prothean senses. In the months since he gained it, his power had only grown; it was almost as if their thoughts were being beamed directly to him. Defeat. Fear. Nervousness. Nothing could be hidden. Not even the calculated cunning of Actus, nor the mouth-foaming fury of Haliat that he directed at Jaina.

"If it isn't the illustrious Commander Jaina Shepard," Haliat sneered, his voice still bearing the oily quality. "The true hero of Elysium. And Commander Marcus Shepard with her – showing yet again that he just can't handle pirates unless a woman does it for him. My, what competence!"

"Would you fucking shut up, Haliat!" Actus snapped lividly. "You want to piss 'em off so they kill you faster? You're the one to talk about incompetence! First Elysium, and now this. How do you think they found us here? The only way was if there was an information leak on your side!"

"Do not switch this back on me, you pompous _hazata_!" Haliat growled, getting into Actus's face before Garrus grabbed and yanked him back by his armor collar. Still, Haliat kept on, "All you care about are your precious collections! Someone like you does not deserve to be called a free entrepreneur!"

"Free entrepreneur?" Garrus chuckled as he looked at Marcus. "Now I've heard all the names they call themselves with."

"That's right, you traitor – free!" Haliat growled looking around at Garrus. "Not at a human's feet, following around like a dog, just like you –"

A human hand lashed out and grabbed him by the mandible, yanking it back forward and interrupting him mid-sentence. He yelped in surprise, then started howling in utter agony when Jaina grabbed the second mandible and twisted them the wrong way.

Actus and other turians could only clench their jaws tight as they watched the woman manhandle the hapless turian.

Not releasing the mandibles, Jaina crouched down, slowly, bringing her cold, cybernetic eyes to Haliat's level.

"Do we have your undivided attention?" she asked, her voice low.

Haliat just glared right back at her, chocking back all sounds in his throat. She released him, then straightened back up and spoke to the rest of the captives:

"Don't be a smartass. Not to a Spectre."

She was silent for a couple of moments, letting them think on it a bit before she turned her gaze down to Actus.

"Now. You know why we're here," she spoke. "We're looking for Saren. And you can help us find him."

Actus frowned in confusion.

"Saren?" he parroted. "I have no dealings with Saren!"

"A riffle that killed Primarch Kandus and the sword of Queen Vaniya speak differently," Liara said dryly as she stepped up to Jaina's side.

Actus's eyes widened.

"That was almost a decade ago!" he protested. "I've –"

"Continued to supply him with rare active Prothean artifacts?" Liara continued, narrowing her eyes dangerously. "We know. Proceeded to do so until a year ago? _We know_. I advise that it would be in your best interest to be very candid."

Actus was slack-mandibled for a moment before he huffed, nodding.

"I see the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," he said incredulously. "Nice job channeling Benezia, kid, I give you that."

At that, Marcus moved from where he stood, the menacing, black-armored figure making a beeline toward Actus. The turian gulped.

"You're right," he said hurriedly, leaning away as Marcus approached then stepped around him to his back. "I admit, I had had dealings with Saren, alright? Plenty of them. With Benezia, too, ever since she joined him! But if you know all that, then what do you want from me? Like you said, I hadn't had contact with him for a year, and it's the truth!"

"Maybe, but you can point us in the right direction nonetheless," Jaina said.

"If the Citadel's spy assets cannot find him, what the hell makes you think that I can?" Actus countered. "And why would I even chase after him in the first place, for Spirit's sake?!"

"Because you're a big shark in the criminal world Actus, and you don't do business unless you know everything that can be known about his business associates," Jaina stated. "Anything less can be terminally bad for health in your line of work. And if one of your regular associates happens to be a suddenly-gone-rogue-and-likely-crazy Spectre, you're damn right you're gonna use every shred of info you can find against him as a safety chip."

She paused to let that sink in, then continued:

"You're right in believing that Citadel can't find him, I'll give you that… Saren was smart; he'd planned this for years, and as a Spectre, he had known exactly how to cover all the venues that the Citadel might have used to find him. But he couldn't have covered any possible investigations that came by alternative channels, such as the ones employed by the various factions in the Terminus. He had no power over those. And those would have been the channels that you would have used to investigate him. And _that_ is why I know you've managed to find him."

There was a ring of slowly drawn steel from behind him, and a black blade of an N7 tactical KA-bar knife was shown in Marcus's hand, hanging just a few inches off from Actus's right cheek.

"It is, therefore, like Liara said, in your best interest to stop bullshitting us," she finished coldly. "Your absolute assistance is not negotiable."

He felt Marcus's hand grab him by the throat and press him tightly against him, the blackness of the knife inches from his eyes.

"Look, I've told you the truth, alright?" he spoke quickly, realizing these were not cops or lawyers he was dealing with. "You're right, I had made a series of investigations, I have placed a few dozen eyes and ears throughout the galaxy, but I hadn't been able to find anything! The bastard has been working with the geth, and next to all the mercs that he's been employing had ended up dead in the couple of months or so. Saren's been cleaning house, ensuring that nothing comes out about any possible location he might be at!"

"You're telling the truth," Marcus spoke up for the first time. Then, just as Actus thought he was in the clear, Marcus's blade spun, and its tip slid underneath his brow plate, then pulled like an action-lever, making Actus grunt and struggle against the pain. "But you're also not telling everything. You have doubts about one planet in particular, don't you?"

Actus grunted. "Gah! H-how in the hell do you know…? Ngh… Fine, yes! There is a planet, but that's a very recent trail! I have nothing to confirm it!"

"You let us worry about that," Marcus replied.

"A-alright. Th… there's this planet. Achan. It's in a remote system, Galan Pillars."

Jaina raised her omni-tool and browsed the star charts until she found the planet.

She spoke, "It's a barren wor –"

Marcus flicked his wrist, and Actus's brow plate went flying, a few droplets of blue blood flying through the air as the turian hollered. Marcus squeezed his throat hard, silencing him.

"Think long and hard before you lie to me again," he said. "The world you were thinking about just now wasn't barren."

Actus felt horror as his pain-addled mind began instantly thinking up scenarios: mind reading device of some kind. Had to be. But how?

"You need to realize that you cannot hide anything from us," Jaina said. "Now. The world."

Actus swallowed. He was backed into a corner, and the only other way was blocked by a black 10-inch blade.

"Virmire," he said at last.

Marcus, Jaina, and Liara shared a look of recognition.

"Virmire is a contested planet," Liara said threateningly. "It is located at a key chokepoint, and half a dozen factions in the Terminus are fighting over it. They have that planet under close watch. If anyone attempted to set a foothold there, all the other factions would drop down on them like a swarm!"

"Not if they're preoccupied elsewhere," Actus replied in a clipped tone.

"Explain," Jaina ordered.

Actus huffed a few times, regaining breath, before he spoke:

"About a year ago, those factions you're talking about started to get hit _hard_ from the other sides. Always hit-and-run. Always through the seldom-used relay paths. And it was always some strange, unidentified ships of similar design. The strikes are executed with such precision and speed that nobody's managed to get a good image capture, but after what happened on Eden Prime, we realized that the silhouettes and color scheme match those of geth ships!"

"And this pertains to Virmire how?"

"Because nobody's bothered to so much as look its way ever since," he replied through his clenched teeth. "They're all worried about covering their own severely-whooped asses! If you thought like Saren, that's exactly what you'd have done: you'd have sent your geth to draw the potential problems away, but not to outright destroy. If those pirate factions were destroyed, there'd just be others to quickly take their place, but with them still around but not daring set foot out, you'd have actually covered your ass real well. And if you thought like Saren, Virmire would be perfect for you: out of the way of the Council, no permanent settlements, nobody is looking at it, yet as a garden world, it requires minimum resources to operate a base. If you are a Spectre, and if you and your people know how to keep quiet, not even the local pirates would ever notice you."

For a few moments, Marcus still held him firmly, before he released him and stepped around him, sliding the knife back into its sheath and thinking on things.

Haliat suddenly spoke up:

"You disgust me, Actus," he sneered. "Saren had always been the one to fight against humans, and you were so quick to sell his secrets for your safety! I never should have agreed to all this. Once I'm free, I'll make sure you –"

Marcus spun, quick-drew his gun, and two loud bursts echoed through the warehouse. Actus's and Haliat's lifeless bodies slumped down onto the floor, blood seeping out of the bullet holes in their heads. Marcus turned to the rest of the captured criminals, who knelt there in fearful silence.

"The rest of them will be picked up by the Alliance patrol that'll come this way sooner or later," he said to no one in particular as he holstered his pistol. "They won't be going anywhere without their ships."

There were murmurs of confirmation through his team.

"Sir," one of Miller's marines then called from the warehouse's upper level terrace. "We've found it!"

Marcus looked at Wrex, then jerked his head to the side. "Come on," he said.

Wrex followed him silently upstairs and into what was Actus's office, being joined by Jaina and the rest of their specialist crew, while Miller's men went on to secure the prisoners.

Many pieces of rare, unique, or downright ancient-looking artifacts were spread around the room, many of them in various states of being packed up and ready to be shipped in an effort to evacuate the base.

Wrex immediately stepped around Marcus and made a beeline to a bullet-proof glass case that stood at the side where several old and unique armor models were showcased. He stopped in front of an old, battered and bulky gray armor that was obviously meant to be worn by a krogan.

"This is it," he said ponderously. "There's Urdnot insignia, right there, and it has all the markings of power." He shook his head then. "I can't believe my ancestors wore this thing. What a piece of crap."

Jaina chuckled, and spoke up:

"Don't tell me you're considering leaving it here?"

"What?" he turned to look at her in confusion. "No. I swore an oath to return it. It's mine!"

"Good," Marcus spoke, then stepped up to the vault case lock, slapped on some omni-gel onto it and sent a pulse with his omni-tool.

A sparkling wave of light passed through the omni-gel, making it form a bunch of electronic circuitry lines all throughout itself. The gel happily mulched on the lock, its circuitry flashing, and in a few seconds, there was a click, and the doors slid open.

Wrex reached out and took the armor off of its pedestal. He held it in his hands, looking down at it, his expression pensive. He nodded, then turned to Marcus.

"I'm done here," he said. "Ready to leave this rock whenever you are."

"In a minute," Jaina said. "Marcus and I need to consider the things this mission yielded."

Marcus nodded, then called to the rest of their team:

"Alright, people, you know the drill: pilfer the crates, as usual; see if there's anything of value for us to be found. Weapons, mods, armor, even machinery – all of it would be useful. I'll go through things here with Jaina."

"Liara, you stay," Jaina said. "We'll need to consult you on whatever you have on Virmire."

Marcus nodded approvingly and said, "The rest of you – dismissed."

There was a hum of eager murmurs.

"Come on, Lt," Ash chirped eagerly, her grin as bright as the sun as hopped and dragged the chuckling Kaidan by his arm. "Have you seen all those different rifles and mods they had down there? It's like Christmas all over again!"

"Don't you touch that flamethrower!" Wrex called as he followed. "That one's mine!"

"Come on," Tali muttered as she dragged Garrus by his collar. " _You_ will help me with that tech down there. Consider it a repayment for being a bosh'tet about my species losing our home to the geth."

"I already said I'm sorry," Garrus countered as he followed. "I said I was wrong about that _and_ about you. Can we put some distance between that and now?"

"No way, Vakarian," Tali chided. "With that sniper, you like to keep things at a distance way too much already. I'm keeping you close and personal until you've served your penance."

"I… have no idea what you're talking about, but if it'll make you feel better…"

Tali sighed, shaking her head in resignation.

Marcus watched them all go, chuckling to himself and feeling an odd fuzzy feeling in his chest. It was a rare thing. Very rare. It had become quite frequent in the last couple of months.

Jaina looked at him from where she leaned against the doorway with her shoulder, her arms crossed and a small smile dancing on her lips. She could swear she could practically feel the fuzziness within him. And just the same, she could swear she could practically feel him shifting gears back to business. There were still things to discuss concerning what Actus had divulged.

He moved away from the door, letting them close, and moved to sit back against the office desk, with Jaina and Liara stepping up to him, forming a triangle.

"So… Virmire?" Jaina asked him as she sank into a hip and crossed her arms.

Marcus nodded. "He didn't lie when he dropped that name," he said. "When he shared his thoughts on the planet, Actus really believed that what he was saying was true. I sensed it."

"But no solid proof?" Liara prodded.

"None," he shook his head, then looked up at them both significantly. "But this is the third time the name Virmire popped up in connection to Saren."

Jaina frowned. "You mean that thing when we found its name in geth databanks in one of the bases we raided?"

"And what we managed to piece together from Wrex's account of when he first met Saren," he agreed.

Jaina was silent for a little while, thinking back on it. Virmire.

The first instance they encountered its mention was from a geth databank in the Voyager cluster. It was nothing more than a single name on a list of 149 planets and planetoids that geth ships have visited at one point in time. And that was it. Nothing to show it was any different than the other 148.

Until Wrex shared the account of his one encounter with Saren.

Even now, Wrex's deep, gravelly voice was clear as day in the back of her head, relaying what had happened back then:

" _This was a while ago. A bunch of mercs were bragging about a job out near the edges of the Terminus systems. They said it paid well, and the boss was never around to ride them, so I checked it out. Turns out they were right, because we've been raiding ships in the area for months, and Saren only showed his face_ _ **once**_ _. It happened right after we took out this massive cargo freighter – our biggest haul yet. That was when he came on board. I have no idea why he wanted that particular ship. All I saw on it was food and medical supplies. There were some weapons, but nothing big. If there was anything of value on it, I didn't see it. Yet, Saren took a special interest in it. He was the one who had requested this specific ship to be targeted. Hell if I know why. When he came aboard, he was just moving through it, watching us. A couple of mercs called him by name – that's how I found out who he was – but he never spoke to them. Never spoke_ _ **to anyone**_ _. I got a really bad feeling about him, so I got the hell out. Didn't even wait to get paid. Didn't even know who he was. Still wouldn't if I hadn't joined up with you. But my instincts were right. Every other merc on that mission turned up dead within a week. Every damned one."_

How was that connected to Virmire?

On the first glance, there was not a single word of it. Hell, the entire story was a big-ass mystery unto itself when they first heard it! It took Liara using her small network to dig through the background surrounding it to find why.

Digging around a bit, she pinpointed the name of the ship, then its cargo, and finally its intended route. What she found at first seemed lackluster. Like Wrex said, the ship really did carry nothing more than food and medical supplies. The only thing that stood out was its goal: an independent prospecting outpost on a gods-end-of-nowhere planet called Virmire – a mining outpost that went dark right about that time. Nothing else.

And if they hadn't already encountered the planet on the list of geth-visited planets when they raided those geth bases, they never even would have looked at it again.

"Two events with one single link," Jaina said, coming back from her reflection. "Geth landing on Virmire at one point, and Saren's people happening to raid ship that was heading to Virmire that Wrex participated in. But it was one ship out of many they raided over the span of _months_. That is why we shelved that idea in the first place. The link was way too circumstantial."

"You're right, it _was_ too circumstantial," Liara agreed. "There was nothing but a possibility that there _might_ be something on Virmire. But now, if you add the third, independent source pointing it to Saren…"

Jaina nodded pensively. "You're right. It does have merit when you look at it that way." She sighed. "Still, I wish we had another piece of info – _anything_ – that could show us what we might be dealing with here. A base? A fleet? We just don't have enough data."

"Ah, but you see, my dear Commander, we actually do," Liara spoke proudly with a sagely smile, drawing more than just their professional attention. "You see, what you need to ask yourself is why would Saren, who had, according to Wrex's account, up until that point recused himself from overseeing merc raiding activities, suddenly decide to show his face on that freighter where Wrex had seen him? What could have been so important for him to personally come to ensure the job was done?"

There was a moment of silence as both of the commanders finally had their suspicions confirmed.

"Because, if he had a hidden base on Virmire he didn't want anyone to know about, he'd have destroyed both the ship and the prospecting outpost it was heading to!" Jaina supplied. "He got onto that ship to make sure that there would be nothing else to point anyone else toward Virmire."

Marcus nodded at Liara, speaking gravely, "You're right. If I was in his shoes, I'd have definitely wanted to check that out personally."

Jaina licked her lips as she shared a look of anticipation with Marcus.

"We could go with this to the Council but it still sounds a bit contrived…" she said slowly, though an excitement was breaking through her tone.

"It. Does. Not," Liara spoke up firmly, planting her knuckles on her hips. "What you two need to realize is that this is not a judiciary trial. This is information mining. And in information mining, it is always the small, seemingly completely unrelated things that suddenly link to form the striking truth, because it is these small things that the shadow players cannot control. On its own, the geth nav location on Virmire would have been nothing – only one planet of hundreds. Even adding the info that we managed to mine out thanks to Wrex's account of encountering Saren would have been insufficient to make it a certain thing."

She paused.

"But what you need to realize is that Actus wasn't a half-assed nobody. He was a major player with his own networks and channels, and he managed to piece this same conclusion completely independently from us, and using completely independent intel." She looked at Marcus pointedly. "Did he hide the truth? Could you sense in him that he might not have known what he was talking about?"

Marcus slowly shook his head.

"No," he rumbled. "He knew _exactly_ what he was talking about."

"Then, I rest my case," Liara declared smugly, her chin raised high, a smirk on her lips, and her arms akimbo.

Marcus didn't know what came over him, then, when he saw her before him like that. Was it the victorious smile, the I-know-something-that-you-don't look, or the proud but excited body posture that made her glow? Or was it simply the brilliant smarts? Yes, definitely the brilliant smarts. She had disassembled and pieced together the entire chain of events completely on her own. She was amazing! That, and the bubbling tension that seemed to simmer within them, that sweet agony of need that coursed through their bodies… It was finally spilling over.

Before he knew what he was doing, he was up and right in her suddenly-confused face and delivering a solid kiss right on her lips.

The sound of the quick, full-lip kiss smacked loudly through the air, and Liara gasped in disbelieving shock, her eyes widening like saucers and her brows furrowing as if in distress as a blush exploded on her cheeks.

And then, pouty indignation crossed her face, scrunching it up cutely.

Her fist came up and slammed down against Marcus's chest.

"No!" she declared pointedly. "No! No! NO! **NO**!" she went on, punctuating each word with a solid slam of her fist against his armored chest plate.

Marcus chuckled, catching her wrist and holding it gently as he lowered it.

"You stole it!" she declared accusingly glaring up at him.

"Guilty. I'll give it right back," he teased, leaning in.

"Nooo!" she pushed against him, even though her heart wasn't in it. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!"

"I just couldn't help it," he stated unapologetically as his arms slid around her waist, drawing her in close. "You were simply that amazing."

Liara pursed her lips, making her cheeks seem rounder, then looked to the side at Jaina.

"And you condone this?" she demanded.

"Absolutely not," Jaina declared solemnly with her arms crossed. "A first kiss should come with roses, dinner, and candlelight." She approached Liara supportively, hugging her from behind around her stomach, and adding with a smirk, "It's something that this jerk in front of us happens to owe me, as well, by the way."

"Well I beg to differ, Mrs. Shepard," he countered, grinning as he pulled Liara (and with her Jaina) close against him. "The first kiss should be just like this: sudden and fleeting – like a tease, an exploratory taste to leave the other person's lips tingling and wanting more. Like a little sneak preview of what the real deal could be like."

That seemed to mollify Liara. She was still cross with him, though, even as a smile fought through her angry visage, making a cute grimace.

"Be that as it may, you still owe me," she declared crossly.

He grinned lopsidedly. "Coming right up, Doctor T'Soni," he said, leaning in again, only to have his lips meet her soft cheek.

"I think that you've stolen quite enough for the moment, than you!" she said, smirking haughtily at him from the corner of her eye.

"Especially considering that he's doing it at a time and place where giving all of those promised kisses can neither be done properly nor is it advisable," Jaina joined in, speaking right over Liara's shoulder.

"And he won't be getting any, either," Liara agreed coyly.

Marcus narrowed his eyes, smirking. "Are you giving me the cheek, Doctor T'Soni?"

"Are you complaining?" Jaina countered, plastering against Liara's back, and hugging her deeply from behind as Liara leaned back into her. "I reckon it is a very nice cheek," she continued and planted a slow, sensuous kiss on it. "A very soft, a very tasty cheek," she crooned with her deep, husky voice, continuing to kiss.

She tasted Liara's readily-offered cheek once more, slowly, sensuously, with both Liara and her making sure to maintain an eye contact with him.

"Mmm… I think I'll keep it all for myself, thank you very much," Jaina said, licking her lips.

"And I think my cheek would be in much better hands that way," Liara added, smirking. "Who knows what kind of lecherous thoughts our commander might have; wooing no less than two girls at once…"

"We can't have that, now, can we," Jaina crooned from next to Liara's ear, looking straight at Marcus with an evil little glint in her eye.

"No, we can not," Liara agreed, her own voice sinking just as deep and husky as Jaina's. "He needs to have his head straight if he is to prepare his team and his ship for future missions."

"And frolicking around with no less than two girls would cause some other head to be straight, wouldn't it?" Jaina said, her hands trailing across Liara's front. "Just think about it: two girls in his bed, their naked bodies entwined, kissing, gasping, licking…"

"He'd never get any work done," Liara said breathily.

"We can't have that, either."

"Most certainly not."

At that moment, Marcus was sure he must've done something right in his previous life to deserve this. To deserve _them._ _Can't imagine what that could've been, though_ , he thought.

His breath was deep and labored, a deep growl at the back of it bubbling through. His heart was pounding hard – not fast, but _hard_ – and something else was trying just as hard to break through his armor's codpiece. His teeth were gently grinding, and his tongue was licking across the sharp tips of his fangs as he fought of the urge to pounce right then and there.

A long, hot breath slowly left his chest.

He stepped back and crossed his hands casually over his chest to stop them from shaking, and his mouth curled into a ghost of a predatory grin as his eyes pierced the two women.

When he spoke, his voice was an octave deeper, with a dangerous, animalistic edge to it he couldn't control:

"Are you two girls _sure_ you want to play this game?"

An excitement flashed briefly in both of the women's eyes at the tone of his voice, their pupils dilating.

"But, whatever do you mean, Commander Shepard?" Jaina asked huskily from across Liara's shoulder as she dug her fingers into the asari's hips. Despite armor, she could feel Liara's body trembling uncontrollably.

"I think our commander thinks we have ulterior motives," Liara spoke deeply, turning her head and nuzzling against Jaina's cheek for a moment. "He thinks we have sinister plans for him."

"And we may just do," Jaina agreed.

"The trouble is, he can't do anything about it right now, can he?" Liara finished, both of them sending him a pair of piercing, smoldering glares.

"No, he cannot," Jaina agreed as she shifted, taking Liara by the hand and slowly beginning to lead them backwards out of the office. "He'll just have to stew a bit and think on his actions."

As they walked back through the door, a dangerous and determined predatory glare was following them out. Watching. Waiting. Promising. He practically radiated the bestial determination. She could swear she could sense it like a palpable thing, washing over her, penetrating into her pores… She could barely breathe!

Just then, the sliding doors closed, and just like that, a blazing inferno seemed to have been cut. She took a deep breath.

 _Hook, line, and sinker,_ she realized. She just wasn't sure who was the one hooked.

For a moment, there was a fleeting thought that they might not have finished all that was and could be said about Virmire, but she didn't care. Looking sideways at the very much hot and bothered Liara, she knew that she too didn't care… and there was no chance in hell that Marcus had had enough blood left in his brain to care.

"Go," Jaina ordered breathily to Liara. "Shoo, before I lose my calm and devour you instead! Find some work to cool off."

Liara bit her lip and trotted away, grinning, with Jaina going away to find the stairs on the opposite side.

Back in the office, with the women gone, Marcus took a few deep breaths, gathering his wits, before he slowly turned and delivered a vicious sideways punch into the desk's edge with his ungloved hand.

He grunted in pain and looked down to see a gash across his knuckles. It sobered him up a bit. He was thankful for it.

Those two girls had had no idea what that had been like for him.

His Prothean senses were giving him a whole new spectrum of sensations, and the emotions and arousal that both of them were exuding were almost overwhelming. He could feel every single spec. Every single nuance of what they felt. They were sending it all his way. It was like a palpable thing that radiated from them, coating him and calling to him. He barely had the facilities to keep the beast away.

He used the adjacent bathroom of Actus's office to wash his face, neck, and hands, washing away the residual trails of Jaina and Liara, breathing a sigh of relief. The office air was still thick with them, though.

He left the office and descended from the upper floor, ignoring the trail the two women had left behind them. Reaching the main warehouse section, he cast his gaze around.

Ashley and Kaidan were off to one side. Kaidan was sitting on a crate, his head bowed, with Ash standing behind him and gently, with feather-light touches, installing a new biotic amp they'd found among Actus's stashes to the back of his neck where the implant socket was.

"Ash, it's okay, I'm not made of glass," he could hear Kaidan speak through a chuckle.

"Shush!" Ashley admonished as she inserted the amp with dotting care.

From the other side, Tali's voice drifted in, "No, you idiot, you'll ruin it!"

"I know what I'm doing!" Garrus argued back in exasperation as he manipulated the newly-discovered tech while simultaneously trying to shrug off Tali that was trying to bat his hands away from the device.

"No, you're doing it all wrong!" she fought back. "Do it like this!"

Marcus snorted, finally turning his eyes to find Wrex next to a large weapon cache, handling a small, compact flamethrower like it was a puppy he had just found.

Marcus took a deep breath and nodded. All was right with the world.

It was then that his comm link buzzed, and Joker's voice came through:

" _Uh, Joker to mo- uhh… to Commanders Marcus and Jaina Shepard… it looks like we have an Alliance cruiser and two frigates in a transference trajectory toward Tuntau's lower orbit!"_

From the other side of the warehouse, Jaina joined in on the comms, walking back to join up with Marcus:

"How come we hadn't detected them sooner? We left our own probes in orbit," she demanded.

" _Well, you're not gonna believe this, but it looks like both of the frigates are Normandy-class!"_ Joker replied animatedly. " _The IFF pings them as SR-1001 and 1002, the SSVs Red Cliff and Kursk. And I've never seen a cruiser like that, but I'll be damned if it doesn't have an IES too! All their radiator hatches just opened and they're venting heat like a volcano! Uh… standby, we've got an incoming transmission…"_

They waited a few moments before Joker's excited voice came back through:

" _Commanders, you're not gonna believe who I have on the line! Patching you through…"_

There was a click of the channel being switched, and a familiar voice came through:

" _Commanders,_ " Anderson spoke, mirth evident in his voice, " _Surprise!_ "

Jaina's face split into a gaping grin and she beamed at Marcus, and a rich, reverberating laughter of happiness exploded out from Marcus's throat. All the more things were turning up to be right with the world.

.

* * *

.

Marcus and Jaina stood on the CIC of the SSV Perseus, admiring the unconventional layout.

Unlike the frontline combatants such as frigates, cruisers, and dreadnoughts, the carriers that Humanity had introduced showed a markedly different approach. All walls of the CIC were, in fact, massive video projectors, transmitting a live feed of the carrier's outside as seen from its communications spire in a 360-degree. Despite there being plenty of sensors to report with higher accuracy, the visual cues of strike craft's takeoff and landing were still considered important by the Alliance.

Unlike the Normandy's CIC, the Perseus's was showing a much greater hubbub, typical of a true mobile base responsible for handling the numerous craft. It was more than just a ship's bridge; it was a full flight control and task force operations center.

A light shudder went through the ship's superstructure, and the two commanders watched as a pair of fighters were catapulted out of the large side hangar bays.

"Alert-3 launched and assumed trajectory," an operator reported.

"Alert-1 on approach…" another one called, and Marcus and Jaina looked back where the feed of the rear of the ship was shown and saw a pair of specs that were the strike craft approaching at extreme velocity before the ship's mass effect fields engulfed them, arrested their speed and guided them into the rear landing bays.

The Perseus was built upon the same base operating principle that all Alliance carriers were. It had two pairs of main flight decks: upper and lower, both pairs running on either side of the ship's central body. The upper pair of flight decks were the main landing decks, arrayed lengthwise on either side of the upper body of the ship. A fighter would approach the carrier from its rear where a huge mass effect field would capture it, align it with one of the two landing bay entrances at the rear of the ship, and then arrest its velocity when it got close and guide it into the ship. If the capture field failed at that point for whatever reason, the fighter would just pass unopposed through the entire length of the landing deck and exit at the corresponding frontal exit, which was designed to act as a secondary launch pad if needed.

If the fighter was successfully arrested, it would come to a complete stop at one-third of the landing deck's length where an elevator platform would lower it to the service bay for an automated service or resupply. From there, the fighter would be moved forward into one of the corresponding main launch decks that ran the front two-thirds of the ship on port and starboard sides. The fighters were launched perpendicularly to the ship's axis through the huge hangar doors, enabling an entire carrier strike wing to be launched in under 30 seconds. And it was a damn impressive display. No matter the species, the sight of dozens of strike craft exploding like a starburst on their sensors would give everyone a pause.

"Alert-1 docked," came the response from the operator.

"Status of or surface team?" Anderson demanded from his command post.

"Surface team reports a touchdown at the enemy base, sir," an operator reported.

"Good. Have them pick up the prisoners and secure the pirate equipment." He smirked at the two commanders, adding, "If there's anything left, that is."

Marcus and Jaina smirked at him from the side, both shrugging innocently.

He stepped down from his command post and motioned for the two of them to follow him into his 'sea-cabin' that was adjacent to the CIC.

"Sam, take over," he said to his XO.

"Aye, sir," the woman replied, replacing him on the command post.

"You know, this is one damn impressive ship," Marcus said as they stepped into his office. "Almost makes me jealous."

"Turn captain and you might get one as well," Anderson retorted as he sat down at his office desk.

"Nah," Jaina said as she sat down opposite him. "The Normandy handles much better."

"Careful; you're slowly turning into another Joker," Anderson cautioned. "The Universe has one too many already."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't want that, though I'd have to agree on her point," Marcus said as he approached the big screen where Perseus's wireframe with its life-feed status was being displayed. "The Perseus is a mobile base. Small, but a mobile base still. It's perfect for fleet actions. For a Spectre, though, the Normandy is a much better bet. Faster, and a lower profile."

Anderson chuckled. "You got that right. With what its eezo core is like, the Perseus might compete with your run-o-the-mill frigate, but as my two escorts had shown, its speed and maneuverability are nothing compared to the Normandy class."

"Still can't believe they managed to install an IES system into a ship this huge," Jaina said. She then narrowed her eyes. "Which kinda begs the question of how come a ship like this, escorted by no less than additional two, brand-new Normandy-class frigates is _here_?"

"What? I couldn't have been in the neighborhood and just decided to drop by?" Anderson joked.

Jaina gave him a doubting smirk, narrowing her eyes and scrunching up her face as she shook her head at him.

"I don't buy it," she said good-naturedly. "This planet is in the god's end of nowhere. The base on it? We barely had a hunch about its location. Nope. You were purposefully tracking us down. But what's even scarier is that ever since we got to this system, we were under IES the whole time."

"Which means," Marcus picked up, wagging his finger at Anderson, "that the Alliance has a system specifically designed to detect stealth ships."

Anderson threw his hands out in defeat, rolling his eyes as he sank back into his chair.

"I cannot believe this," he muttered incredulously. "You two really don't waste time dissecting the situation and laying it out in the open, do you?"

"What can we say, sir, we're that amazing," Jaina shrugged. "So – what's this new system all about?"

Anderson harrumphed. "I cannot confirm nor deny the existence of anything in the likes of what you say."

"Oh, come now, sir, we know that's exactly what you wanted us to know about," Jaina retorted, grinning.

Anderson smirked, tapping the side of his nose in a conspiratorial gesture.

"The Alliance would be grateful if the Spectre's right hand would drop the subject," he said pointedly. "Though, honestly, even if I did have such a system, I had still had to use some deductive methods to track you down… you two move so quickly all over the place that no one could track you."

"Well, wouldn't that be the point?" Marcus said. "You already have two stealth frigates in your group that you can use to test this, so it's not a problem to see if it works. The true test would be managing to find a stealth ship that you truly have no idea where it is."

Anderson snorted. "Yes, I suppose that's what I would have done if I had that kind of system."

"I'm sure you would," Jaina commented dryly, then leaned forward in her chair. "So what's next for you? This ' _accidental_ ' encounter couldn't have been the only thing your task group was tasked to do. Seeking us out just to say 'hi' would be a grand waste on par with ' _Let's send our brandest, newest stealth ship to recover some Prothean artifact from some backward agrarian paradise world_ '."

Anderson laughed out loud, his rich voice filling the room.

"It's true, I do have a different mission," he admitted in a tone that clearly stated it had nothing to do with the Normandy. "It's classified, though. I can't and I won't speak of any details; you know the drill. As for why I tracked down the Normandy, there is more than just trying to see whether we could. The Alliance is slowly beginning to consolidate its comm systems, and we're switching from military comm buoys to QECs one ship at a time. Deep space operations warships – the ones that get deployed deep behind enemy lines or far away from the main fleets – get the priority for such systems, and the Normandy is one such ship."

"The Alliance wants to know where we are at all times," Marcus concluded.

"Can you blame them?" Anderson retorted. "With the Normandy being a part of a Spectre outfit, nobody in the Alliance knows anymore where their ship is most of the time nor how to contact it in case shit, and I was the only one who could track you down! Talk about being relegated to an errand-boy duty."

Marcus and Jaina laughed in turn.

"Well, the comm room was designed with that in mind," Jaina said. "The Council had provided us a direct-link QEC module when Marcus took command of the ship."

"And now, Hackett has given me the order to provide the Normandy with the additional two, Alliance-built modules," Anderson said. "One links to Arcturus. The other links to the Perseus. Both are limited in bandwidth, merely 128 kBps, but are more than sufficient for what is needed. Here are the official documents…" He passed the datapad to Jaina. "With this, the Alliance is officially notifying Marcus, a Spectre to whom the ship was loaned, as well as the Council, that it will be installing those two modules on its ship – _finally_!"

"No argument from me," Marcus commented as he glanced at the documents over Jaina's shoulder, then looked up at Anderson. "Though, I assume there is an ulterior motive to this than just being able to contact Normandy whenever?"

Anderson sighed, lacing his fingers.

"Off the record," he spoke, "the Perseus and its escorts are about to pull some nasty shit in the upcoming future. Hopefully, the trouble we're about to stir will remain on the recipient's end. If, however, the whole thing goes fubar, it'd be good to have a few good men we can trust on a speed dial. _And_ ," he added pointedly, "that very same arrangement would work both ways."

He paused and nodded significantly. "The Perseus has got your back, Shepards. Never doubt that."

Marcus and Jaina shared a solemn look with him, nodding back.

"Never will," Marcus replied.

"Alright," Anderson said, his face splitting into a giant grin. "Now tell me what those former shipmates of mine have been up to since!"

.

* * *

.

An hour and a half later, the Normandy sped on its way out of Tuntau's star system, leaving the Perseus task group to head its own way.

"Damn, it was so good to see Captain's got his wings back!" Jaina spoke as she and Marcus walked into the comm room.

He nodded. "You have no idea how good it makes me feel now that I know that he'll be watching our backs as well."

"And that we're not the only ones out here, either," she added.

He hummed, nodding. "Perhaps he'll be able to provide some assistance with Virmire," he said.

She tilted her head, thinking on it.

"Perhaps, but I don't wanna drag him away from his mission. It sounds important enough if he's keeping quiet about it." She sighed deeply. "And let's not jump to conclusions, kay? At this point, we don't know anything about the situation on that planet other than being pretty damn sure Saren's base is there. We don't know how big it is, how well entrenched, what manpower he has…"

Marcus chewed the inside of his cheek in thought, then activated the comm room's display with his omni-tool and brought up Virmire's 3D projection into the comm room's center.

"Whatever the case, we can't go in there blindly," she said as she scrutinized the projection together at his side. "If it _is_ Saren's base of operations, then it's reasonable to assume that Sovereign would be there or near, and then there's the contingent of geth warships. Getting in there and remaining undetected in stealth mode is a given considering the improvements we've made, but…"

"But?"

"But what if he's not there?" she pointed out. "Saren is not the kind of guy to sit around, that much is clear, and his recent track shows that he's been very mobile. Eden Prime, Feros… His goal is to find the entrance to the Conduit, and you can't search for something by sitting in one place. My bet is that he's mobile even as we speak. If we go to Virmire now, we'd have to wait for him to show up. Meanwhile, he gets to roam unchecked all over the Traverse and the Terminus in his quest."

"And merely destroying the base while he's not around…"

"Will only slow him down until he sets up somewhere else, and we get thrown back to square one," she agreed. "This way we know where he is. We can corner him there when he appears."

He nodded. "But in order to do that, we'd need another set of eyes and ears on that planet," he said. "Because we cannot afford to be the ones to sit in a stakeout for what could be weeks."

"Ideas?" she asked.

"The Council," he said. "We send the intel and convince them to scout out and monitor the Hoc system – at the very least the relay transit to and from."

"Why stop there?" Jaina said, then squinted her eyes, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "Let's pressure them a bit; make them send an STG team planetside, check out exactly what is there. We get an early grounds layout for a possible infiltration and a surgical strike."

"I like how you think," he smirked. "I'll go to the CIC and set us up on a course for the Citadel. We'll need to restock our ordnance anyway, so we might as well do this in person."

"Alright," she nodded, then continued seriously. "Meanwhile, I'll go talk to Liara. We'll see if her network can be set up to sift through and pick up any real-time updates about Virmire that comes from the other side of the Galaxy – the Terminus parties and whoever else could provide the data."

Marcus barked a laugh.

"Lie to someone else!" he exclaimed, grinning. "Your meeting with Liara will be extremely effective in achieving its goals, but we both know it'll have nothing to do with Virmire."

Jaina was already walking, shooting him a teasing smirk over her shoulder as she skipped away towards the door, her chin-length hair bobbing along the way.

"I don't know what you're talking about, husband!"

"Uh-huh," he said doubtfully, smirking. "You better make sure she gets a kiss from me, ya hear! Or else…" he warned.

.

* * *

.

As soon as she left the comm room, Jaina descended down to the crew deck and went straight for Liara's quarters.

Reaching the doors, she tapped the amber hologram to ring the bell and wait it out. Instead, the doors immediately pinged and opened up for her. _Huh_ , she thought. Liara had set up her lock to grant full access to her. Only a privacy hologram that spanned the doorway now masked what's on the other side. Interesting.

She grinned and stepped through.

The moment she did, her eyes were filled with blue as a sinuous body slammed into her, pressing firmly against her, with a pair of soft, wet lips sealing against hers in a scalding, passionate kiss.

A sudden, shocking, and a very welcomed kiss.

Jaina hummed appreciatively, her hands slithering around Liara's waist to press against the small of her back and between the shoulder blades, drawing the girl deeper in and deliberately preventing any escape while she drank from the hot spring of those young lips.

She spun them both around and pushed the other female toward the wall, Liara's leg lashing out and hooking tightly around the back of Jaina's thigh, keeping herself firmly in her prey's possession as she was pressed against the wall.

The kiss ended with a resounding smack.

The two women were left staring deeply into each other's eyes, millimeters apart, panting, their breaths mixing, exchanging.

"My, my," Jaina murmured contently, "Looks like someone's a _very_ happy kitten today."

Liara blushed harder, suddenly looking the innocent bashful girl.

"I couldn't help it," she murmured with a pouty face. "You and Marcus… back on the planet, you made me so… so…"

"Hot and bothered?" Jaina supplied.

Liara squeezed her leg tighter around Jaina's thigh, making her chuckle.

"Well now, isn't that nice," Jaina murmured, then rubbed her forefinger against the side of Liara's cheek. It was feverish and pillow-soft. "I think I'm beginning to like this customary asari greeting you taught me more and more by the minute," she added, gazing into Liara's eyes.

A small, coy smile graced Liara's lips as she looked down.

"That… wasn't exactly the traditional greeting I taught you," she said slowly, haltingly, her voice a shade of dusky bedroom silk.

"Oh? You're saying there are others?"

"Mhm," Liara nodded, taking advantage. "What I taught you before was _letenyos_. A greeting kiss for close friends that's shared regularly."

She reached forward, planting a quick kiss on Jaina's lips. Quick, and lips only, but resounding. A kiss you give to someone you like. A kiss that spouses shared when leaving for work that made you all tingly and ready to tackle the day.

As they separated and licked their lips, savoring the taste, Liara continued:

"Then, there's _letanya_ ," she said, leaning in for a slow, deep, and lingering kiss. No tongue, but it bore all the weight and passion of caring. It spread warmth and content and comfort, and made them both breathless when they separated. Liara said, "That one is for when close friends reunite after a long, long time apart."

Jaina hummed again as she licked her lips.

"More?" she begged, scrunching her eyebrows pleadingly.

Liara smirked.

"Uh-uh," she denied firmly, shaking her head. "Marcus isn't here. It wouldn't be right."

"Huh? Why?" Jaina whined in protest. "He did instruct me to give you a kiss from him, you know!"

"Ahah," Liara chuckled. "I believe that. But don't you think it would be fair for him to get some of the kisses too? After all," she took Jaina's hand and placed it on the swell of her hip, "I'm your girlfriend now. Yours and his. And I ain't letting either of you go."

Jaina's eyes twinkled brightly, her lips like that of a cat that ate a canary.

"Now _that_ is a very good news," she said empathically. "What brought the change of mind?"

"I've… been thinking about what you said down on the surface," Liara said, her voice breathy. "I think you're right. After everything the three of us have shared… it's obvious I've been your girlfriend all this time already, haven't I? There's no point in dancing around it or proclaiming it as public. It just is. So – there it is, I'm saying it! I'm your girlfriend, and Marcus is our boyfrie… no, wait, he's your husband… oh, shoot! This is so confusing!"

Jaina snorted out a laugh. Liara giggled with her.

"In any case," Liara continued, "I think that this girlfriend setup gets you some privileges when we're in private. Such as cuddles and stuff."

"Ooh! And foot rubs and back scratches!" Jaina added enthusiastically. "Marcus _loves_ his back and belly scratches."

"What else?" Liara demanded eagerly, hopping in place against Jaina.

"Mm-mm!" Jaina refused, lifting her nose high and shaking her head sagely. "Nope. I demand kisses as payment."

"Jaina!" Liara whined, slapping her fist against Jaina's chest. "I told you, it's not fair to Marcus! He should be there when we kiss and when we…" she blushed furiously. "When we do whatever else we happen to be doing in the future. I know this. I did extensive research on the extranet. Human males love seeing two girls kissing, and I want to make him happy with it!"

Jaina narrowed her eyes at her, smirking. "My my… what a bunch of diwty little thoughts you have, Doctor T'Soni. 'Exploring' on the extranet, hmm? What you should have said is ' _when the three of us have sex_ '."

Liara slapped her fist against Jaina's chest once more.

"Stop teasing!" she protested, her pretty face turning indigo as she looked away.

Jaina chuckled warmly, bringing Liara's chin back toward her, then tapped the tip of Liara's nose and wiggled her finger against it.

"Well, aren't you a caring one," she said. "I'm happy to know that you think of him like that. But you are also very wrong thinking that Marcus would be left out. Have you forgotten that he has Prothean abilities now?"

Liara's big eyes became like saucers as she looked up at the other woman.

"You see," Jaina spoke more huskily as she pressed closer against her, rubbing their bodies gently side-to-side, "the moment I get within an arm's reach of him, he is going to pick up the traces of you all over me. Once he touches me, he'll get to see and experience everything that both of us felt at this moment. And, once his lips touch mine, he'll get to taste every single peck you gave me today. And there's nothing you can do about it."

With their breasts pressed tightly together, Jaina felt the beat of Liara's heart rising by the second to a thundering staccato. Such a beautiful and soulful rhythm beating against her own.

Liara closed her eyes, exhaling laboriously and taking a deep breath. When her blue eyes opened and rose to meet the other woman's, Jaina knew instantly that Liara wasn't looking at her.

"Then," Liara spoke, "this kiss is for you, Marcus."

Hugging Jaina's neck, she leaned in and dove in for a true, deep kiss. And, for the first time, their tongues snaked out between their lips, touching gently in their first ever greeting that grew into a long, sensuous dance. It was lasting, titillating and bearing all the need and greed that had sat in frustration all this time.

They separated after what seemed like an eternity, their foreheads touching and their noses rubbing, and the two of them just basking in the afterglow of that first true kiss. Jaina knew that, even though the kiss was ultimately meant for Marcus to sense through her, she was meant to be the recipient just as much as he.

"I'll make sure he gets it," she managed as they slowly regained their breath. She then grinned. "Boy, but you asari sure love kissing all the time, don't you?"

"Why wouldn't we?" Liara shrugged. "Kissing feels good and makes you feel good for a long while. It mends. It keeps the pain away. It lifts your spirits. It makes both minds happy and their mind melds pleasurable. Kissing is a big part of our asari culture. It's an integral part of our everyday lives." She then shrugged sheepishly. "That is why all other species make all those stereotypes about our promiscuity."

"Says a girl in a threeway relationship with her commanding officer and his wife," Jaina teased.

"Says a girl that made that threeway happening her sacred mission," Liara mock-protested. "And is still teasing!"

"You're complaining? After how _both_ of us teased Marcus earlier?"

A big smirk fought its way onto Liara's lips as she spent a moment in silent reflection, sharing a conspiring look with Jaina from the corner of her eye as she silently conceded the point.

"Felt good, didn't it?" Jaina prodded conspiringly.

"Good?!" Liara exclaimed. "Did you see that look in his eyes when we were walking away from him?! It was… it was like…"

"Like a predator about to break his chain?"

" _Yes!_ " Liara exclaimed even more vehemently. "It looked like he was about to pounce on us right then and there, but at the same time he was looking at us as if saying he was letting us off the hook just this once. But there was this promise in his gaze that he wouldn't let us get away with it."

Jaina leaned in closer, inches away from Liara's face, and spoke huskily:

"Are you're telling me you don't like it, hmm?"

Liara held her breath for a split second.

"I loved every second of it," she groaned out, her voice deep, grave, and just as husky as Jaina's. "When he looked at me like that, it was like an electric bolt struck me deep in my chest. It was as if all the heat left my limbs and surged down into my stomach and all the way _down there_. I wanted him to pounce at me. I wanted him to ravage me whole."

"And he would have, too, if we had been in the privacy of our quarters," Jaina replied, then added sinisterly, "And there'd be nothing you could do about it."

"What happened to us girls sticking together and making sinister plans against him?" Liara protested jokingly. "Wouldn't you have protected me?"

"Protected you? I'd have held you down for him!" Jaina exclaimed, pinning Liara's wrists on the wall to the sides of her head. "And then, he would kiss you like this –" A big, wet kiss smacked into Liara's neck, and Liara squealed. "And like this –" Another on the collar bone and another squeal, "And like this –" on her cheek.

Liara was squealing, and giggling, and squirming halfheartedly in Jaina's grasp as kisses rained down relentlessly on her sensitive and ticklish spots. Jaina could practically feel the girl's giddiness and excitement resonating from her, craving and fearing more of the sweet torment. Her body was singing to her, begging. And she was more than willing to cater out to Liara's needs.

After torturing the sweet girl with a few more precious kisses, she relented after a final, strongest kiss to the notch at the bottom of her neck, leaving Liara panting and grinning excitedly inch away from Jaina's smiling face.

"So, that's what will happen once he catches you, see," Jaina said sagely. "Exactly the thing that is our ultimate goal. But _until_ that happens, we tease mercilessly and keep our man on his toes. Girls can't let boys know what we truly want from them – it'd go straight to their heads!"

Liara narrowed her eyes suspiciously, struggling to speak properly from the lost breath. "Didn't you say that Marcus can use his Prothean senses to see what we talked about just now, which would mean that it kinda invalidates our efforts?"

Jaina snorted. "Please. I know a mental trick or two, and I've got a good handle on his Prothean abilities. He's only going to get to see the kisses; not the details to our evil, sinister plans on how to keep him on the edge."

Liara shuddered excitedly.

"Ohhh, this is so much different than what it is among asari," she said. "Or compared to how it is with you. With other girls it's sensuous, but with males, it's so raw, and rough, and bestial… and it feels so right!"

"Of course it does! It's only natural for any girl to be attracted to men like Marcus. But like I said, we can't let them know it. Come then, my young padawan," Jaina guided her. "Let the big sister continue teaching you the secrets of manipulating men."

Liara snorted a laugh. " _Big_ sister? One who's almost 80 years my junior?"

"Shush!" Jaina chided good-naturedly.

Whatever she was about to say next was interrupted when Liara's terminal began to buzz in a rhythmic warning tune.

Liara's head shot toward the display screens. She just looked at the terminal for a second, her features in alert concentration, before giving Jaina a grave look and gently dragging her by the hand to her work desk. Jaina couldn't miss the change in her demeanor, the blush of excitement and arousal immediately retreating to leave a serious, consternated visage.

"This is a specialized warning I've made to ring if any message were to come carrying certain keywords," Liara said somberly.

"Let me guess," Jaina said knowingly. "Saren and Benezia?"

Liara just nodded gravely. She seemed to hesitate for just one moment before she reached out and tapped a blinking button. The message was brought up on screen, and Liara read through it in short order. When she finished, she exhaled slowly, composing herself.

"This message is from one of my Illium contacts, Enyota," Liara conveyed. "She's using code phrases we developed."

"Do you know what she conveyed?"

Liara nodded. "She has found information on Benezia, but she cannot share through a comm link, and she cannot convey her finds via phrases. Jaina, she has fled Ilium. Whatever she has found… it must be the real deal if she felt worried for her safety."

"Where will she be then?"

"The Citadel. She's already there. I'd have to contact her once we get there for her to send us the location of the meeting."

"Then it's a good thing we're returning there right as we speak," Jaina said, then nodded. "I'll notify Marcus. And _you_!" She delivered a sharp, stinging slap on Liara's tush, making her yelp in shock. "You better stay hot and bothered, because Marcus is about to be getting those kisses!"

As she walked backwards toward the doors, pointing a warning finger at Liara, she watched the young asari's initial shock morph into smolders of a seductress as her sexuality took over, her body losing tension and melting into a pose that screamed sexy confidence.

Good, Jaina thought. Liara needed that confidence. A confrontation with her mother was fast approaching, and whatever the outcome, there's no way it could be fluffy bunnies and rainbows. She wanted Liara to strut into that battle like she owned the place, and once over, she wanted there to be no hesitation in Liara's mind to return and seek comfort in hers and Marcus's embrace.

After all, she was their girlfriend now.

..


	29. Chapter 29 - The Corporate Conspiracy

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _Say Happy birthday to this story!_

 _It's been a full year since it started, can you believe it? I wish to thank you all for your continuous support with your reviews, favs, and follows. It's the best feeling to know that your story and what you write is considered good and often awesome by many of you guys. This story has also crossed 400 reviews. It was like another milestone. I hope all of them are broken someday._

 _So, without further ado, here comes the continuation…_

.

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 13.11.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes, Intrigue, Militaristic…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 29 – The Corporate Conspiracy**

.

A barely-perceptible shudder went through the ship's superstructure, the slight vertigo of deceleration feeling almost as if the brakes were applied. Jaina reached her hand to her ear.

"Report," she called.

" _Just finished the relay transit, Commander, we're in the Widow system,_ " Joker reported. " _I'm seeing lots of traffic; we seem to have dropped during the rush hour. ETA to Citadel: 15 minutes._ "

"Take it slow, Jeff; we're in no rush," she commanded.

Ending the comm, she returned her focus on the datapad in hand.

"So, what's the verdict?" she asked.

"Good as new, ma'am," the technician that crouched next to her said as he wiped his hands from finishing work, then examined the part he had just replaced. "The nanothyristor regulator was straining because we've augmented our powergrid. All that power was overheating it. I've placed a new one and rigged the thing to compensate. Should be fine for a long while… it's not perfect, though."

"Suggestions?"

He scratched behind his ear. "Well, installing the TET-76 model instead of the standard one would be best, but that one's not on the official Alliance requisitions supply chain…"

"Say no more," Jaina said, bearing all the wisdom of a great commandant, and spoke to the datapad she held, "Input TET-76 nanothyristor to the Spectre requisitions list."

The datapad chirped, and she gave a happy, smug smirk to the crewman. "Using family benefits to its greatest!"

"Here's to that!" he cheered after her as she turned on her heel and exited the chamber with a spring in her step. Having a spouse in high places and having a carte blanche to take advantage of that power? Priceless!

She exited the sensor housings chamber that was located all the way at the front of the ship, beyond the crew quarters sections. Pausing, she fished out a candy bar from her pocket, unwrapped it, and held it between her lips as she munched it, using both hands to update several of her lists on the datapad.

Munching the bar and typing away at the same time, the various conversations from the four-person crew cabins that were arrayed on either side of the corridor were reaching her, and she couldn't help but keep employing half an ear to listen. A legacy of her grunt years; no one knew when a scuttlebutt would yield something useful. And besides, the juiciest things would be heard right here rather than elsewhere.

Sometimes, though, some of the things simply made zero sense!

"You felt the deceleration just then?" came from one cabin just a couple of paces away. Johnson's voice.

"Yeah, we must've passed into the Widow system," Harada replied.

"Damn. The Citadel. You think Mom and Dad will let us have a shore leave? It's been a while."

"Shit, that still sounds a bit weird."

Johnson barked a laugh. "But it's accurate as hell, and we all know it! Besides, it's too late now; it's stuck forever."

"True that. Who came up with it anyway?"

"Joker – who else?!"

"Stupid question," Harada muttered, then sighed. "But yeah, in any case, you have a point. It sure'd be nice to have a day off."

"Here's hoping…"

' _Mom and dad'_? Jaina wondered absentmindedly. _Joker inventing stuff? What the heck were those two on about_? Sometimes, some things in the crew quarters sounded just too weird for logic. Oh well…

Though the idea a shore leave sure did sound good, she had to admit. They've been out in the field for almost a month, nonstop! The crew deserved it.

Finishing the update of her to-do lists and finally sucking up the last of the candy bar, she walked up to the closest cabin and palmed the opening hologram to throw the candy wrapping to their trash bin.

Stepping back out, she checked the cabin occupants' names. Fredericks, Marciano, Alonzo, and Polanski. Two of them were on duty, and the voices of the other two were coming from next door.

Humming a happy tune with a spring in her step, Jaina strode into the neighboring cabin where Fredericks and Polanski were chatting up the three present female crewmembers. Paying no mind to the three women that immediately surged to their feet, she grabbed both men by the ears with an iron grip and dragged them out with her.

"Oh, shhh-!" Fredericks exclaimed, both him and Polanski realizing just whose steel grip was ripping their ears off.

She drove the two men before her like a slave mistress and herded them into their cabin, pausing just past the doors and pulling the two half-bent men's heads close together to her mouth.

"Well now," she spoke with a soft smile, the caress of her warm breath a confusingly tantalizing contrast to the sharp pain in their ears. "What do we have here, hmm?"

"Um, uhh…" Polanski stammered.

"It's, ah… a room that's not up to snuff, ma'am," Fredericks struggled out.

"Hmm? A room not up to snuff?" she wondered innocently. "I think it's a bit more than 'not up to snuff', don't you? So, once more – what do we have here then?"

"A… a room that looks like a bomb went off, ma'am," Polanski supplied in defeat.

"And is that what an Alliance soldier's room is supposed to look like?" she asked, raising her eyebrow, her voice the sweetest, most pleasant tone that only came from a woman that was about to rip someone's head off.

"No, ma'am," both men quickly supplied.

"That's right," she dipped her head solemnly. "And you're going to spend the next ten minutes making this room so squeaky clean that you could eat marshmallows from the floor itself – riiiight?" she wrenched their ears harder.

"Yes, mo-uh… ma'am!" Polanski replied hurriedly.

"And you'll be good boys and spend the entire next week on crew deck cleaning duty, together with the other two roommates, to atone for this mistake – correct?"

"Yes, ma'am!" They both shot out.

"Good," Jaina chirped happily, then added more sternly, "Because if I'm not happy with your room when I get back, you can forget about having a shore leave on the Citadel; I'll be grounding you for the rest of your life." She released their ears. "Go get 'em, tigers!"

The two men scrambled to work with absolute speed and dedication.

She turned around and stepped out of the room to see every cabin's doors open and crewmembers peeking out, and spoke out, glancing at her chrono:

"In nine minutes, forty seconds, there will be a flash inspection of the crew quarters. Carry on," she beamed a dazzling smile and walked away.

There was a total general scramble as everyone went to work. She sighed contently. Ahh, the perks of being a person in power! She tapped her earbud and called on a private channel:

"Hey, Marcus, whatcha doing?"

A moment later, came a response:

" _I'm here in the cargo hold, teaching a few of our boys on how to maintain the Scorpions; they'll need this in the future. Was that us exiting the relay transit a minute ago?_ "

"Right! We've crossed into the Widow; ETA to Citadel some 13 minutes."

" _I'll go and prepare everything we have for the Council then,_ " he said. " _Also, there are a few chores that the ground team wanted to do on the Citadel; we'll separate into groups and send them off while Liara takes the two of us to the meeting with her contact."_

"Sounds efficient," she agreed. "Also, we ought to give some shore leave. It's been a month on the field; the kids need some downtime. They need to get wasted and get laid! It's not fair that the only ones that get to do that are mom and d…"

There was an extended pause.

"… _Jay?_ "

"Honey, let me call you right back in one, quick, teensy bit?" she pleaded sweetly, then hung up without waiting for a response and dialed a different line. "Karin? Will you please be so kind to send an automated medical stretcher to the cockpit?"

" _Why? Did something happen to Jeff?_ " Chakwas demanded worriedly.

"Oh, no!" Jaina responded. "Just tell him that _**mom**_ sent it and that she'll be with him shortly."

There was a pregnant pause, and then Karin exploded into a glorious cackle.

"Traitor," Jaina grumbled and ended the comm.

As the shore parties went on to prepare, the Normandy glided gently through the expanse of the dense nebula, weaving through the throng of the dense Citadel traffic somewhat slower and less recklessly than usual.

The blare of the warning horns echoed across the pier as the sleek vessel glided through the containment barrier, the docking clams extending with a hiss and a clack as they latched onto the hull. Almost as soon as they did, the cargo hold began to open, and the joint crews immediately began the initial checks, maintenance, and resupply works.

Amidst the hubbub of the lower level, Marcus and Jaina exited the Normandy, their ground team in tow, walking down the gangplank and onto the main pier.

"Have you noticed Joker wasn't the one piloting?" Garrus asked. "I was half expecting a goodbye joke."

"Said he had a sudden onset of diarrhea," Kaidan replied, shrugging helplessly.

"And he decided to use the woman's bathroom?" Ashley demanded crossly. "I saw him bee-lining for it with a speed I wouldn't expect from him."

"So that's where he was hiding – where I'd least expect," Jaina grumbled quietly.

"What was that, Commander?" Garrus asked.

"Oh, nuthin'," Jaina replied, smiling innocently.

"Well, jokers aside, it feels damn good to be in the civilization again," Kaidan said, nodding toward the amazing view of the orange-glowing streets of the Wards pulsing like veins against the violet backdrop of the nebula.

Wrex snorted. "Civilization. Yeah right. Whenever I came back to the civilization, I ended up being invited to a conversation with the C-Sec."

"That's because we like krogan," Garrus said.

"And I'm a vorcha," Wrex growled.

"Hmm… won't deny that, but what I meant was that whenever a krogan gets detained, we confiscate so many illegal arms that we could outfit a platoon! You'd be surprised how much funding goes into our bank through the legalized selling of those same weapons."

Wrex gave him a stink-eye. "Wiseass."

"Well, he's not wrong, you know," Tali chirped sagely. "Just look at yourself! You're carrying a machine gun, a claymore, and a one-handed flamethrower!"

"I have to," the battlemaster said. "We wouldn't want the C-Sec to start viewing the krogan in a different light, now would we?"

"I don't know, Wrex," Kaidan started, "you do not seem like what anyone would've expected of a krogan in general."

"Right," Wrex said, curling his upper lip, then turned and gave Kaidan a big krogan lizard stink-eye. "Because you humans have a wide range of cultures and attitudes, and all krogan think and act exactly alike."

Kaidan laughed out loud.

"Yeah, that doesn't work anymore Wrex," he said.

"Maybe if you hadn't used it three times already to scare him to death…" Ashley groused.

Wrex looked from one to the other, then grumbled, "Thank Kalros I'm off that ship; you people aren't fun anymore."

Laughter all around.

"Don't worry, Wrex," Tali said, slapping his shoulder and giggling. "I'm sure that now that you're on the Citadel, there'll be plenty of people terrified by your very presence!"

"I sure hope so!" Wrex barked. "Things on the Normandy are a little too tame in between the missions. The gunfights are good, but I've been aching for some good old fistfight for a while now. None of you hotheads on the Normandy wanted to."

Jaina looked at him incredulously.

"Is that why you've been randomly getting into other crewmembers' faces these past couple of days?" she asked.

"I did," he rumbled. "But I forgot that you humans don't have the same challenge culture as us krogan do. I just wanted to blow off some steam in a friendly bout. Was that so wrong to ask?"

"No, but I hope you won't go picking fights with random people on the streets," Marcus warned as they reached the end of the pier and began to pile into the elevator.

"What? No!" Wrex said. "Picking fights – that's what you do when you're young and stupid. When you get older, you realize that the best fights will come to you."

"Well, I'm glad to hear to hear that the honest people of the Citadel will be safe from the big, bad krogan," Liara declared.

"Course they will!" Wrex said. "What kind of a gung-ho, fight-loving, artillery-packing gun-for-hire do you think I am? I have some class! I don't glare at ordinary people on the street… most of the time."

Liara inclined her head, smiling. "Like I said, I'm glad to hear it."

"I'll just go to Chora's Den, instead," he continued in the same breath. "It got reopened, and the moment I step in, they'll be bound to attack me. Hehehehehehe."

"Oh, for the love of…" Liara muttered, palming her face and smirking. "I shouldn't have asked."

Wrex barked a laugh. "What? You can't tell me that spending your whole adult life studying old Prothean junk is better than a random bar fight, can you? You gotta live a little, Liara! A random bar fight shouldn't phase you anymore; you've been doing great so far on the Normandy!"

"Well, I _would_ prefer fewer explosions," she retorted.

"It's good for ya," he countered. "An explosion every now and then keeps the mind sharp. Same as fights. You should go and have a bout or two with someone on the Normandy, just to keep things sharp and ready for the following mission."

"Do krogan go about sizing everyone and everything for a fight?" Kaidan wondered. "Even friends and allies?"

"Yes," Wrex shrugged as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "It is only natural. Your human military ranks might serve you to have order in peace times, but when in the heat of battle, only the most level-headed, cunning, and capable fighter can lead the army – the one who is not afraid to use any means necessary to ensure survival, and that's how krogan settle their hierarchy."

"I don't think going about and challenging your superior officer to a fight would work," Kaidan said. "That kind of thing tends to get you thrown into the brig."

"Really?" Garrus asked in genuine wonder. "Humans don't organize full-contact battle arenas on their ships or tours of duty? Such a thing is expected on turian ships. I always thought that no such fights happened on the Normandy only because we were all constantly busy."

Wrex chuckled. "Well, there you have it," he said, then turned his look to where Marcus and Jaina were standing. "So, Marcus, Jaina – who'd win in a fight between you two?"

"Oh, I always let him win!" Jaina chirped. "We need to keep our Spectre's ego high and mighty."

Marcus narrowed his eyes down at her. She gave him a little shoulder dance, looking coyly at him.

"What she means by that is that she likes when I'm on top," he drawled.

"How come I get the feeling they aren't talking about sparring?" Garrus remarked.

"Oh, we are," Jaina commented. "Sorta."

"So – sparring mats are getting installed into the cargo hold before the day is over?" Marcus ventured.

"Oh, you better believe it," she hissed huskily, the two of them never losing eye contact.

Wrex chuckled, looking at others pointedly and motioning with his head toward the two commanders.

"See that?" he said. "Healthy competition and confidence in victory. That's why they run this show."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, the crew stepping out into the C-Sec area.

"A recap," Marcus called, turning serious, and the group formed a broad circle. "Jaina, Liara, and I will meet the contact, followed by a Council meeting. Garrus? You mentioned a side-job."

"A C-sec friend of mine, Chellick, has asked me to help him out with a case. It's a covert pickup for illegal mods. He needed someone off the grid to play the criminal party."

"Then take Wrex and Tali with you," Marcus said. "That should give you enough of a 'not C-sec' vibe if needed. Ashley, Kaidan, you have your chores: the Embassy has a prepared OSD with Alliance patrols. Bring it to us."

"Yes, sir," Kaidan replied.

"Buldoze through the pencil pushers if needed; remember you got Spectre clearance," he added.

"Oh, that'll be a pleasure," Ashley grinned.

"If no other orders are received from me or Jaina, report back to the Normandy after the chores are done, after which you'll have the rest of the day off. Move out!"

As the groups slowly separated, he unconsciously placed his palms on Liara's and Jaina's lower backs, gently herding them forth, with the two women fell in naturally close to his side.

They didn't notice Wrex's and Garrus's keen eyes looking at them sideways. The big krogan snorted knowingly. Garrus twitched his mandible uncertainly, looking back at Wrex.

"Come on, whelp," Wrex rumbled. "Don't we have a job to do?"

Garrus nodded. "Right. This way."

The groups each grabbed a cab and, one by one, lifted off of the parking lot and turned, each going their own way.

"Have there been any new messages in the interim?" Marcus asked as he drove the car they were in.

"Yes," Liara replied, powering up her omnitool. "We've been given an address – a café-restaurant in Bahjret Ward."

She flicked the icon from her omni-tool to Jaina's who began correlating it against the 3D maps.

"Second floor of a building next to a small plaza," Jaina said. "Smart. The place is tucked in with a perfect overview of the place and has zero sniper prospects. And there's a C-Sec precinct right across. _Very_ smart."

"We shouldn't be surprised," Liara said. "Enyota was a commando before going into the private sector on Illium. She's practically written the rulebook of the game."

"She was Benezia's follower once, right?"

"Up until a couple of decades ago. They remained close, and I know for certain that Benezia looked her up when she joined Saren, but that Enyota refused."

"Reasons?" Marcus asked.

"She had already established her own small security outfit that she wants to grow as big as the Eclipse someday. Dropping it all to go on crazy quests with Saren wasn't an option."

"What guarantees do we have she's not double-crossing us by giving us bad info for Saren's sake now, though? " Jaina asked.

"Only that Enyota is very ambitious and cautious," Liara said. "And she's not an idiot; she knows Saren's the enemy number one. Being associated with him would jeopardize her rep and future prospects, especially in Council space.

"Personally, though, I don't think she's trying to conn us. The trouble she went to organize this meet-and-greet proves she's concerned for her safety."

Marcus nodded. "Fair enough. Nonetheless, I intend to take everything she says with a grain of salt. None of us got this far due to blind trust."

The car buzzed through the busy Citadel traffic, surging through the middle levels of Bahjret Ward toward the ground. They passed into the lower level, driving through the Ward's traffic tunnels, finally exiting into the Trennen district.

Marcus gave the indicators and banked, pitching gently down into a broad spiral until he leveled out a few meters above the parking lot. Descending, he shut down the engines and the trio exited the car, taking a moment to scan the unfamiliar part of the Citadel.

It was a spacious square with a fountain in the middle, surrounded by a small shopping mall, cafes and apartment buildings, with many people milling about.

"Spotter, two o'clock high," Jaina said. "Another one, fountain."

Marcus noticed the asari on one of the balconies and a turian who sat on a bench that encircled the fountain, both watching them while seeming inconspicuous about it. Turian was speaking through a comm link. It was invisible to an untrained eye.

"Enyota's people," Liara said. "This way."

She led them up the stairs to a balcony catwalk, then across the skyway onto a fancy open-top café-restaurant. There were few customers at this time, but another asari spotter could be seen watching over the lower area from one of the tables.

Liara looked around and spotted the person she was looking for at a tucked-away desk that had clear lines toward several exits.

"Over there," Liara pointed with her chin, leading Marcus and Jaina toward the woman.

The asari that waited for them sat casually at the bench, ankle across the knee and one arm draped across the backrest, dressed in clothes one might expect of an ex-military: pants, t-shirt, leather jacket, and knee-high boots.

Despite the casual posture she sat in, an air of a professional radiated from her keen, calculating eyes as she scrutinized the oncoming party.

"Enyota," Liara greeted her with a nod.

"You're different," Enyota deadpanned, almost accusing.

"I'm not sure I follow," Liara challenged, crossing her arms.

Enyota nodded at her. "That. You look a hundred years older. More confident."

Liara looked smug. "Why, thank you."

"Hmm," Enyota commented pensively, looking between the two humans and scrutinizing Liara in turn with a small smirk on her lips before nodding toward the seats. "Take a seat. Let's do business."

The three visitors seated themselves across from Enyota. She was silent for a few moments, then spoke:

"To be frank, kiddo, I didn't know what to expect when you first contacted me when all this started. I thought the shy little mouse would walk through that door looking all flustered and outta place. I had no idea what someone like you would possibly want this intel for. Now, though… What happened to you?"

"Explosions," Liara deadpanned. "It's good for ya. It keeps the mind sharp. Then there's geth shooting at you every other day, blasting apart mercs and pirates, getting yourself a boyfriend and a girlfriend," she said with a little smirk as she nodded sideways toward Marcus and Jaina. "It kinda puts things in perspective."

"Hah!" Enyota barked. "In other words, running, gunning, and shagging – what any decent young maiden should do, but doing it in style. Way to go, kiddo. Way to go."

Liara played it cool about the shagging part and turned to business instead.

"You know why we're here, Enyota. What do you have for us?"

Enyota leaned forward against the table and laced her fingers, looking at each of the individuals.

"Tell me, what do you know about Binary Helix?" she asked.

"A corporation that specializes in biogenetic research and development," Liara said. "Why?"

"Because Saren is a major shareholder, and the Council has no idea about it."

Marcus tilted his head, narrowing his eyes at her. "That doesn't make any sense. Binary Helix is a Council-licensed corporation. Council's investigation teams would have made the connection to Saren by now."

"No, they wouldn't," Enyota replied, then leaned back, crossing her legs. "You see, the problem is that Binary Helix isn't a corporation. It's a consortium. It is organized around large, self-contained member firms and groups. Each one functions on a separate line of funding, having their own banks, their own internal exchange and paperwork."

"I find it had to believe that the Council investigators would have missed Saren's involvement in it despite that," Liara challenged.

"And if the member corporations were solely from Citadel space, that would hold true, but many of them are not. They come from Terminus, Traverse, and the Verge, and as such, the Council cannot touch them."

Liara's eyes widened, and she shared a look with Marcus and Jaina. Enyota nodded at seeing this.

"You realize it too," the older asari said. "And thus we come to the greatest problem of capitalism: as long as the money is being raked in, the governments are willing to turn a blind eye and only do a half-assed job in the investigation. See no evil, hear no evil. And this is why Saren has managed to retain his link to that consortium without being noticed and maintain business with them."

"Wouldn't the STG still be able to discover Saren's involvement?" Jaina wondered.

"They would if they knew that they needed to look at Binary Helix specifically," Enyota said. "But as it stands, they have absolutely _no clue_ about it."

"Then how could someone like _you_ possibly know?" Marcus interrupted, leaning forward with a dangerous look in his ice-blue eyes. "Explain to me how can a leader of a small, private security outfit know things that have slipped the STG's grasp."

She leaned forward against the table, returning a solid look.

"A person in my business needs to know the filed. I must know not only my clients and their backgrounds, but the competition and the clients that hire them as well. The clients, in my case, are the corporations that want a new facility secured, or ensure a safe transportation of sensitive goods. The competition, however, are hundreds of small mercenary groups that operate throughout the Attican Traverse and the Terminus. They're cheap and don't ask questions, and are more than willing to do shady work. My good rep and the quality of future ventures depends on knowing both. How does this tie to Saren you ask?

"See, when I opened up for business, things were pretty stable and unchanging. Then, several years ago, the landscape in the field began to alter. Many of the mercenary companies started going off the grid, leaving a vacuum. Obviously, this got me worried, so I put a few ears to the ground and discovered that none other than Saren was recruiting big time and sending them off to do goddess-knows-what throughout the Terminus and the Traverse. Naturally, I kept tabs on things. I couldn't find out much, unfortunately, 'cause Saren was good at a cover-up, but because I watched both the competition _and_ their clients, I got lucky; A piece of information from another contact cast light into where Saren was getting the money from to keep paying all those mercenaries for so long."

"Binary Helix," Jaina said, narrowing her eyes.

"Exactly," Enyota replied. "A thing this big piqued my interest, so I kept close ties with a contact that worked in Binary Helix. Then, about six months ago, I found out that Saren began to clean house. Most mercenary groups that worked for him ended up dead. I figured: hey, it's rotten as fuck but it's Spectre business; I better not get involved. Then, two months ago, Eden Prime happens, and not long after, you contact me. So, here I am."

"Has Saren still kept his business with the Binary Helix?" Marcus asked.

"As of yesterday, very much so, and it's a big business alright," she said.

"Of what kind?"

"They are providing him with specialized equipment for genetic and biochemical research, cloning vats, as well as a great deal of Lishteni cyber-augmentation tech. To what purposes? None of my informants know. And, to be frank, I'm not sure I'd want to know, either."

"Closing your eyes and hoping that makes the monsters from the dark just go away?" Marcus asked rhetorically. "Because that always works."

Enyota snorted. "Yeah, point taken."

"So – cloning vats and biological research equipment," he said. "What quantities are we talking about here?"

"Shiploads," she said. "The gear is mixed with other cargo to cover it up, but from what I'm getting, we're talking hundreds of units."

"All you're saying makes it look as if Saren is building himself an army," Jaina commented. "A genetically-enhanced army – probably with lots of cybernetics too. The question is why, if he already has geth troops?"

"For getting where geth can't – infiltration, most likely," Marcus replied. "Imagine covertly filling up a place like the Citadel with your own people over several months, then suddenly staging a coup." He nodded at Enyota. "What else have you found out?"

"Only that most of his genetic tech comes from Binary Helix's labs on Noveria," she said, then smirked. "They have a sweet deal out there, you see. Noveria Development Corporation is actually something we asari call a histeya."

Marcus and Jaina frowned.

"A keiretsu? That's a human term," he said.

"Ah, it must be the translators," Enyota said, then nodded. "Histeya, keiretsu – guess it's similar enough. The NDC is like that – several firms working together but having fingers into each other's pie, such as owning each other's shares for financial security purposes. Binary Helix consortium joined this. The NDC has provided them with large labs in the planet's icy desert. It is here that the entirety of their work for Saren is centered at – right in front of Council's nose, but way away from their eyes."

Marcus leaned back into his seat, looking up, and his mind churning this new information around. Enyota homed in for the kill:

"Do you want to know what the biggest kicker is?" she asked.

He nodded.

"The kicker is that everyone above the lowest level on Noveria knows that Saren has a lab in the mountains doing his work." When everyone looked at her incredulously, she continued. "If you were to ask around Port Hanshan, any man or woman out there would tell you that as if it's the most natural thing in the world, because they don't' give a fuck about the Council, and they have the leverage to do so. The only thing that can make Noveria dance to your tune is money – or the threat of losing it, for that matter – and since the politicians work with them for mutual profit, nobody cares enough to actually _check_ whether they've been bad boys."

Marcus flicked his tongue against the inside of his cheek, slowly turning his head to share an incredulous look with Jaina.

"Well, then," he spoke after a few moments of silence, "Now we have our new mark."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Enyota said wryly.

"Why?"

Liara answered instead, "Because Noveria is not a part of Council space. Noveria treaty ensures it remains independent, operating solely as a private property under Noveria Development Corporation."

"Yeah, well, something tells me they don't get to play dumb," he said knowingly. "Not when it comes to this." He looked to Jaina and Liara, speaking, "We'll need to run this with the Council and then make preparations."

"Thanks for this, Enyota," Liara said. "You'll find that the funds have been transferred to your account. I'm also extending an invitation for further businesses, not just for Saren but for everything that will be coming our way."

" _Will_?" Enyota intoned.

Liara gave her a silent, serious look. Enyota watched her silently for a few moments.

"You know, I've known you since you were born, kiddo. In the entire century since you could speak, you've always been fanatical about the Protheans; the park incident clearly showed that. Yet now, I see a fledgling information broker before me. The Protheans, the academics, the ruins – you've practically thrown it all away," she snapped her fingers. "Just like that. And you never were the one to abandon one thing before getting all the way down to the truth of it. What changed? And don't tell me it's because of the explosions, geth, and a good nookie."

Liara looked down at the tabletop, the grim expression in her eyes not lost on Enyota.

"Let's just say that what I've uncovered about the Protheans is far more than I have bargained for," Liara said, then raised her eyes.

Enyota was silent for a moment.

"And Saren and Benezia are connected to it, aren't they," she stated more than asked.

"And if they succeed in what they plan to do with it," Marcus spoke up, "no matter how hard you or anyone else keep your eyes shut, you're gonna be swept fully into the storm."

Enyota looked at his eyes. His grim frown was all she needed to see.

"Alright," she said with a nod. "I'll help you, kiddo. We'll keep in touch _._ "

Liara smiled. "Keep posting me about anything of relevance to this, then. If the situation changes, I will be the one to notify you of new points of interest."

The four of them stood up from their seats, shuffling away from the table and walking out of the bar. As Marcus, Jaina, and Liara went to their car, Enyota's lookouts retreated one by one and moved off to regroup with their boss.

"So, what now?" Jaina asked as they piled into the cab.

"We meet the Council," Marcus replied. "They were already notified that we found out about Virmire. I want to see what they have done about it."

The skycar spun gracefully through the air, and sped down the path from which they originally came, with Marcus punching in the direction of the Citadel Tower.

.

* * *

The three-person group exited the main Tower elevator and turned down the non-descript corridor, with Marcus flashing his credentials as they passed the armed guards.

They walked to a non-descript door and entered a large chamber that functioned as the Council's private conference office. All three of the Councilors were already there, with Valern and Sparatus sitting at comfortable armchairs around a broad round glass table, examining some reports, and Tevos standing a few paces to the side, next to a large window.

Marcus noticed another individual standing in the corner of the room, as well. It was a salarian, wearing a non-descript black armor.

"Commander," Sparatus greeted him neutrally, replacing a datapad on the desktop.

"I trust you've read our findings concerning Virmire," Marcus spoke without preamble. "I need to know what course of action you plan to take."

Sparatus arched a brow.

"Straight to the business at hand, then," he commented. "Very well. I trust that you've familiarized yourself with the background concerning the planet?"

"Naturally," he replied.

"Then you understand the delicacy of the situation," Tevos spoke up as she turned away from the large window, and walked regally toward the desk. "Any large-scale action on our part could very well cause a chain reaction that could lead to a war with the Terminus systems."

"Large-scale action?" Marcus exclaimed. He shook his head. "Whoever said anything about a large-scale action?"

The Councilors looked taken aback.

"I'm surprised, Commander," Sparatus spoke first. "I'd expect that, as a human, you'd be eager for a payback to a man that has slaughtered thousands on one of your colonies."

Marcus raised his eyebrows and shared an incredulous look with Jaina.

"Well the fact that I want him dead doesn't suddenly mean that all my military education just flew out the window with my brain and that I transformed into a mindless bloodhound," he retorted with an impatient glare as he crossed his arms. "Have you really thought that I'd be crazy enough to send a fleet into a dark area that we have no tactical info about? That's just calling to be ambushed."

"Saren still has contacts around," Jaina picked up. "He'll know the moment the fleet even starts to muster. He'll be able to retreat even before the fleet is fully assembled, and set up shop elsewhere while leaving a few nasty surprises in his wake. End result? We achieve nothing and are actually thrown five steps back. Right now, we know he's on Virmire and we mustn't rush until we have a clear layout. Every tactician knows this. After that, we can hopefully eliminate him with a precision strike."

The Councilors straightened, looking at each other in silence. Marcus and Jaina were beginning to slowly discern small, almost imperceptible cues the Councilors were giving each other and assumed Valern was the one to speak next.

"You… have obviously given this some thought already," the salarian said slowly. "We assume you have an idea of your own?"

Marcus swiped his hand toward the second salarian that stood off to the side in the shadows. "The same idea you envisioned, obviously – to send an STG to scout it out. That's what they're for. I don't understand why you didn't think I'd want to do that in the first place."

The Councilors were looking at him silently for a second, unmoving, before Tevos took word.

"We have obviously misjudged your method of approach to situations like these," she said, raising an eyebrow. "You will forgive us, but our only experience dealing with human matters comes through your ambassador. We know he was very vocal about the Council taking… an extreme course of action."

Jaina sniggered next to Marcus. "Assuming that soldiers would behave the same as politicians do? The same politicians who send soldiers to death while sitting comfily in their armchairs?" She snorted derisively. "Please, Councilors."

Tevos inclined her head acquiescently.

"Very well, Commander," she said. "We are glad that there was no need for any form of persuasive talks to take action. We have, as you say, already decided that sending a single STG team would be the best course of action, and we're glad that you agree. May we introduce Captain Kirrahe."

Marcus turned his head as the thus-far unnamed salarian stepped out of the shadows at the side. He walked up, offering his hand to Marcus, who took up the handshake.

"Tol Kirrahe," the salarian introduced himself. "My team has been assigned to investigate the situation on Virmire, Spectre. I will report my findings to you if we manage to uncover anything."

"What's your crew complement and equipment?" Marcus asked.

"I have an extended company of mixed operatives and covert troopers, flying _SUS Rureto_ , an STG frigate," Salarian said. "We may not be a stealth ship like the Normandy is, but I assure you we know how to slip by undetected. If there is anything amiss on Virmire, my team will discover it."

"Very well, but be advised that I've received intel mere hours ago from my sources indicating that Saren was in the process of procuring vast amounts of heavy biochemical and genetic research, as well as cloning equipment. Reason dictates he's either trying to build a clone army of some kind or that he's developing a bio-weapon to test on the clones. Take appropriate measures."

"I see. Well, it's nothing our team hasn't seen before. We'll be ready for it, I assure you," Kirrahe said with a salarian smile. "We _always_ expect trouble."

"Fair enough," Marcus acquiesced. "How soon are you leaving?"

"In seventeen minutes, if we are finished here," he said, looking questioningly toward the Councilors.

"By all means, Captain," Valern nodded, to what Kirrahe nodded farewell to Marcus, and walked away toward the exit.

"Commander," Valern spoke up, "Your reports never mentioned that Saren was procuring bio-genetic research equipment. Care to explain?"

"That's because that information is new," he replied. "I came to it less than an hour ago, right here on the Citadel. According to my source, Binary Helix Consortium is constructing vast quantities of this equipment for Saren directly, and the numbers are in the hundreds. "

"Then I question the validity of your source, because there's no way that a business of that magnitude would have been kept secret," Sparatus said.

"We have checked all of the Citadel Space based corporations in great depth, Commander," Tevos stated. "None of them have shown any connection to Saren. I assure you, Binary Helix wasn't overlooked."

"Have you checked their businesses on Noveria?" Jaina punched straight to the core.

Tevos blinked.

"I thought so," Marcus rumbled.

Sparatus's head jerked toward the asari Councilor, his eyes glaring. Valern just looked at her questioningly sideways; it had been her part of the job to organize the agents to investigate the white collar connection to Saren.

"Noveria is outside of Council jurisdiction, Commander," Tevos spoke diplomatically, her words meant for all present. "We couldn't perform any checks on them."

"My point exactly," Marcus replied. "Saren is a major shareholder of the Binary Helix."

There was a pause as Marcus purposefully let that sink in.

"How accurate is that information?" Sparatus demanded sharply.

"Very," Marcus replied. "Apparently, the fact that Saren has assets on Noveria is not that big of a secret among the dark corporate world of the Traverse, yet here I am, having to utilize my own resources to discover that."

He paused, then sucked in a full breath before he spoke,

"You know, Councilors, I'm the last person to tell anyone that you shouldn't make deals with the devil if it suits your cause, but I also know that the devil will seek the first opportunity to bite my hand off. Now I know that everyone benefited from whatever deal the Council made with Noveria, I really do, but from where I'm standing, it is woefully clear that you have failed to ensure your own security, and I can't help but wonder what other backdoors to your operations have you left _wide open_!"

He took a deep breath, calming from his tirade and placing his arms akimbo.

"Now," he continued more measuredly, "the NDC has played you for complete fools. They know Saren's the enemy number one – the whole damn galaxy knows – yet they played dumb." He shook his head. "I don't think they should be allowed to get away with it. That is unless you want all other corporations to see NDC getting away with doing damaging business behind your back and be led by that example to openly do the same – which they will!"

By the time he finished, Tevos's features were stony, Valern's face was troubled, and Sparatus was all but grinding his teeth.

"Obviously, what you've brought to light shows that our relationships with independent consortiums will have to be placed under careful scrutiny," Sparatus spoke through his teeth, emphasizing words, pointedly not looking at Tevos.

"Indeed," Valern said grimly, raising his eyebrows. "If the NDC and Binary Helix have truly covered up their involvement with Saren, then we must investigate the matter immediately. I trust that your goal was to head to Noveria to confront them about Saren's involvement, Commander?"

"It is," he said. "I will be taking the Normandy there as soon as the maintenance is complete," Marcus replied.

There was a moment of silence.

"Very well, Commander," Tevos replied slowly, inclining her head. "But we must warn you: as you've said it yourself, Noveria is not under Council jurisdiction. We have an agreement with Noveria by which Spectres are allowed extraterritorial privileges, but nothing further than that exists. You would be at best… tolerated."

"Oh, they better believe they'll be tolerating me to the extreme," he declared. "They don't get to play dumb with this. And I'm hereby notifying you that I'll be using this excuse to tear them a new one, diplomatic and economic incidents be damned."

Tevos winced, Valern's eyelids blinked conspicuously, and Sparatus just regarded him grimly.

Without any further word, Marcus turned and led the way out of the Council chambers.

.

* * *

"I don't think the Council likes the situation in which it is in," Liara commented, as the tree of them were climbing up the elevator toward the Normandy's docking bay.

"You reap what you sow," Marcus said. "They had allowed for NDC to exist, and Saren had used that fact to his utmost profit. Now, they don't know how to proceed."

"What do you think we'll find there?" Jaina asked.

"With all that biogenetics involved?" He snorted mirthlessly. "Hopefully just lots of info about Saren and Virmire, and nothing else," he said, as the elevator doors opened to the docking bays, and the three of them stepped out.

"The corporate heads on Noveria won't let you go about that easily, Marcus," Liara said. "They've got used to having their way, especially since they are practically independent."

"We'll see," Marcus replied as they stepped up to the Normandy's docking berth proper.

Suddenly, Jaina looked alert. "Heads up."

Marcus tracked her gaze to where she pointed with her chin and saw an Alliance Admiral standing in front of the Normandy's entrance, a female officer that worked as his adjutant in tow, and Kaidan and Ashley standing at-ease just to the side of them.

"Liara, you just be chill and proceed straight into the ship," Jaina said. "This is likely some Alliance business and doesn't involve you."

"That looks like Michailovich, from the 63rd Scout Flotilla," Marcus noticed.

"Really? What's he doing here?" Jaina wondered.

As they approached, Liara passed to the side of them and proceeded straight toward the ship's airlock. The two commanders could see a frown on the admiral's face as his eyes tracked the young asari.

Marcus and Jaina walked the few paces up to him, noting his expression of displeasure. They stepped up and gave a by-the-book salute, the Admiral greeting them back in return and speaking up:

"Rear Admiral Michailovich, Fifth Fleet," he said. "This is my adjutant, Ensign Nakano."

"Commander Marcus Shepard, CO to the SSV Normandy," Marcus introduced himself.

"Commander Jaina Shepard, XO to the SSV Normandy," Jaina spoke in turn.

The Admiral looked from one to the other, as if waiting for something.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?" he asked.

"The Commanding Officer of the 63rd Scout Flotilla," Marcus replied simply.

Mikhailovich looked as if he swallowed something sour.

"I wasn't referring to what's common knowledge, Commander," he said irritably. "The Normandy was slated to be assigned to my Task Force. Yet, I see it sitting here, doing the work of those who are _not_ Alliance."

Marcus looked at him askance. He really didn't want to waste time on what, by every sound of it, looked like a caprice of a ranking officer who wanted his hurt ego stroked.

"Admiral," he spoke, keeping his annoyance from being too obvious, "with your Task Force being part of the 5th Fleet, there's no way you cannot know that the Normandy was lend-leased to the Council to serve under me and that those orders come from –"

"From the very top," Mikhailovich spoke on top of him, "yes, I _do_ know, Commander."

"Then, with all due respect, but what is this about, Admiral?" Marcus demanded boldly.

Mikhailovich kept a level glare at Marcus who glared right back, both men near the same height, neither backing off, just projecting that firm aura that made them into the men they were.

"It's about this ship," Mikhailovich spoke slowly, nodding sideways at the Normandy. "When it first set sail, I considered it nothing more than a gimmick, an effort on the politicians to play nice to the turians and spend exorbitant amounts of money in a co-developed boondoggle."

"Yet someone had shown you its operational battle data," Marcus said knowingly.

"They did," Mikhailovich said, then walked a few paces with his hands behind his back, looking sideways to the Normandy. "I couldn't believe it. A ship this small, at 155 meters compared to the Alamo's 232, yet packing enough punch and defenses to give a heavy cruiser a run for its money."

"And now you want it back," Marcus finished.

Mikhailovich stopped dead and turned on his heal toward him.

"No, I do not," he said clearly. "Not this ship, anyway; I do not need it. Another Normandy-class down in the future will replace it in my ranks, and _that_ is why I'm here."

He walked up to Marcus.

"Sometime in the very close future, the Normandies will represent our frigate mainstay, and if we are to lay our trust in them, I want to know just how much of that apparent stellar performance comes from the ship and its Alliance crew, and what comes from the non-Alliance factors.

"I'm here to make an inspection, Commander. I want to see just what makes the Normandy tick, and I want to make it an official memo to the Joint Chiefs." He motioned with his hand to his adjutant, who offered a datapad to Marcus. "This is Alliance Command's official request for the inspection. Obviously, it is stated as such, since the Normandy is not directly under Alliance's command and it still requires you, as its commanding officer, to officially allow it."

Marcus had already scanned through the short document, noting the key points and finding nothing out of order.

"I can agree to this," he said noncommittally, then glared at Mikhailovich from under his eyebrows. "As long as this happens today and doesn't last much longer than your usual inspection. We _are_ pressed for time."

"We can begin right now," Mikhailovich stated pointedly.

Marcus returned the datapad to his adjutant with a sharp motion of his hand, then motioned with his open hand toward the Normandy's entrance.

"Permission to come aboard granted," he said, then nodded sideways toward Ashley and Kaidan who stood patiently at-ease off to the side. "Just let me confer with my men on a mission-sensitive issue first."

Mikhailovich nodded briskly and walked with his adjutant to the Normandy's entrance where he waited them out.

As Marcus and Jaina approached the Kaidan and Ashley, they could see that the two marines looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Lieutenant, Chief," Marcus spoke.

"We sent you to get us the data, and you returned with a grumpy Admiral," Jaina snarked.

"We encountered them at the Embassy, unfortunately," Kaidan spoke.

"Sorry ma'am, sir," Ashley said, looking bashful. "They followed us home, but we promise we don't intend to keep 'em."

Marcus chuckled. "The data?"

Kaidan immediately handed him the OSD. Marcus took one look at it and scanned it with his omni-tool, then glanced at the two marines.

"Alright, get your asses to town; you're off the clock," he said nodding them toward the distant elevators.

Ashley grinned broadly.

"Yes, sir, thank you sir!" and she grabbed Kaidan by the bicep and dragged him off.

With that, Marcus and Jaina returned to Mikhailovich and led him into the Normandy.

"Admiral on deck!" echoed throughout the interior as the small party exited the airlock.

"As you were," Mikhailovich called out before any commotion could spread.

He took one long, sweeping look across the entire area.

"I knew the Normandy had a different layout than a standard Alliance frigate, but this is the first time I'm actually seeing it," he commented.

His eyes settled on the pilot's chair.

"Helmsman," he called.

Joker looked back from the pilot's chair, then pressed the control, pulling the chair back from the console and swiveling around.

With slow and careful motions, he shuffled out of the chair and stood at attention, his face tight and carefully blank.

"Sir," he said, his usual joviality and jabs completely absent.

"Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, I believe?" Mikhailovich said, measuring him from head to toe. "I understand you have a rare condition? One that makes your bones extremely fragile."

Joker clenched his teeth and fury flashed in his eyes.

"Sir, with all due respect, but I have _earned_ my right to be here, and I –"

"Helmsman!" Mikhailovich interrupted sharply. "Do I look like a drill or flight school instructor?"

"No, sir," Joker replied after a heartbeat.

"Damn right I don't, nor I ever intend to be one," Mikhailovich said sternly. "I didn't come here to question whether you're apt to be where you are. If your professors and instructors at flight school said that you are, with flying colors and top scores, then that is so and as far as I'm concerned, you're exactly where you need to be."

He paused, taking a step around the man-at-attention.

"Now. I read your file," he continued. "You have top scores. You even hijacked the Normandy before its maiden flight to show-off your flight skills to Captain Anderson. I'd applaud you if it wasn't practically a felony. And I've seen the simulations of you flying her throughout several skirmishes and battles. And that is why I'm here. I'm here to ask _you_ , the Normandy's pilot, specifically:

"How much of that amazing flight was the Normandy, and how much of it was you?"

Joker's face turned from previous anger to careful deliberation.

"This ship's the best ship in the Galaxy when it comes to agility, hands down," he stated firmly, with fire to his words. "Its speed and maneuverability are off the charts. That being said, you need to be careful; all that power can sneak up on ya, making it buck like a bronco. The ship can fly for itself, yes, but in the heat of battle, you can't rely on autopilot or fly-by-wire. It cannot make the decisions for you; it can only adjust. Any decent pilot knows this and knows how to give a kickass flight. Are you asking me whether any of my fellow Alliance pilots could fly this ship through those battles you saw? Yeah, they could. They'd bring the ship back in one piece more often than not, and with some experience and liberty to fly wild, they might become pretty damn amazing with it… But nobody will ever be as good as I am."

"So what makes you different?" Mikhailovich stabbed deliberately. "You – a boy with fragile bones? You'd be useless in a gunfight, yet you are a maverick at the helm. Why? I want to know."

Joker's face turned furious.

"I don't know," he growled defensively, then added a belated, "sir! I just _am_!"

"Actually, I have the answer to that," Jaina spoke up from behind Mikhailovich.

Virtually everyone turned to look at her in mild surprise. She shrugged it off like it wasn't there.

"The reason Joker's so good is because of how he moves," she said. "People with Vrolik syndrome mustn't make sudden motions. With their bones fragile, one wrong step could mean a fracture, so ever since birth, they need to learn to move differently than how the healthy people do. Their movements need to be more gentle and flowing into the motion.

"Now, bring that into the ship's cockpit. The controls are razor-sharp. They're made of haptic joysticks and they detect the tiniest of motions, instantly reacting to any change. But us, humans, are built to have quick reactions, so when they fly a ship and a sudden movement is required, the majority of pilots will make a quick jerk that the ship cannot properly follow through. Few pilots manage to overcome it because it requires them to abandon and forget the very thing they grew up around. But Joker never had that. His movements were always careful and flowing. _That_ is why he is the best – because his hands are steady and deliberate even when dreadnoughts are firing at you."

Mikhailovich seemed to genuinely consider this.

"I see," he said absentmindedly, then giving Joker another head-to-toe. "Carry on, Lieutenant."

He turned on his heel and bid Marcus to lead him down the main operations corridor.

Joke exhaled in relief and gave a grateful look to Jaina.

"Thanks, Commander," he murmured.

"Oh, any mother would want to protect her baby boy," she replied with honey-sweet voice through clenched teeth.

Joker choked, going pale. Jaina patted his shoulder gently.

"Now go do your chores; we'll talk about this later," she said sweetly, then followed after Marcus and Mikhailovich.

The two of them had already passed into the CIC section, and the Admiral was looking high and around as he appraised the layout.

"I'm not sure I like this," Mikhailovich commented.

"What exactly?" Marcus asked.

Mikhailovich waved his hand around.

"What I see is a CIC and bridge combined in one, yet I don't see why a frigate would need such a thing. A CIC of this size would be expected on a carrier or a dreadnought, but a frigate? No. Ships like these aren't designed to lead fleets; what good is a CIC like this?"

"To perform covert ops," Marcus said simply.

"A CIC _this huge_ for covert ops?" Mikahilovich argued pointedly.

"Precisely," Marcus stood firm. "A stealth ship that operates deep behind enemy lines needs to handle a huge amount of data. This CIC is not here to coordinate other ships but to carefully follow the maneuvers of a multitude of _enemy_ ships throughout the system. One or two operations stations like you'd have on an average frigate's bridge aren't enough for that. Any piece of data that slips through can cause this ship to be discovered, and it would spell a critical mission failure. In addition, all that data that was recovered from an enemy-occupied system needs to be processed and sent back to the fleets. This CIC does just that."

Mikahilovich hummed pensively, then looked around once more.

"I see," he said. "Yet this CIC acts dually as the bridge at the same time. The multiple operations can create unnecessary clutter. I can already see a commanding officer would find it exceptionally difficult to organize an effective execution from where we stand."

"They thought of that already," Marcus said, then motioned him back toward the command platform. "Up here."

The two of them stood side by side at the top of the command platform and overlooked the entire CIC, with a clear view up the front toward the cockpit.

"Ship captains had worked as expert consultants during the design stages of this ship," Marcus said. "They knew the moment they saw it that there would be issues like those you mentioned, so they came up with this.

"This CIC is a modified turian design," he spoke as he brought up the various holographic projections that showed various system statuses. "From here, it is intended for the commanding officer to have a full view of what is going on in the CIC, allowing him far greater capability to oversee and direct his crew than what he could achieve if he were to be stationed on the same level and mingle with them, as is the case with standard Alliance ships. Being all the way at the back and in an elevated position, the CO will know _exactly_ at any given moment where his men are and what they are doing. Likewise, the crew knows exactly at any given moment who and where the person that's giving out orders is, and it gives a better sense of the established hierarchy and chain of command during the battle.

"Also, the command platform enables unprecedented control of the ship itself, enabling the commanding officer to have direct control over the ship's systems if needed: its helm, weapons, engines, sensors – all of it can be rerouted for the CO to assume a direct control in case of an emergency."

"Hmm," Admiral hummed as he scanned the spaciousness of the view around him, noticing for the first time some things that were never present on Alliance ships and the degree of oversight he had. "Yes, I can see the merit of this kind of disposition… What about the crew that's further up front at the weapons and defense section, though? They're too far out to be effectively included in CO's commanding."

Marcus tapped his ear.

"They thought of that too; standard spec ops comm implants," he said. "On this ship, everyone has them, and they are active at all times. This enables even the forward stations to be effectively directed and to provide feedback."

"And if the comm system fails?" Admiral demanded.

Marcus shook his head firmly.

"Can't happen. It draws power from human's own body electricity, and works on a separate system than the rest of the ship."

"And what if an EMP strike happens?" Mikhailovich argued.

"An EMP piercing the ship's outer shell?" Marcus asked pointedly. "An EMP of that magnitude would mean that we'd be irradiated with enough energy to flash cook a dinosaur!"

Admiral looked forward, mulling this through, silently inclining his head in acquiescence.

"I suppose you're right; this isn't the 21st century," he said, then took a deep, relaxing breath. "I think I've seen enough here. I want to see the crew deck."

Marcus led him down the platform and out of the CIC, the two of them followed closely by Jaina and his adjutant.

He spent some time sifting through the crew quarters, searching for any discrepancy or eschew of the protocol on the crew's part, and failing to find any. The entire area was squeaky clean, the crew cabins smooth, tight, and spotless. Even the small observation rooms were kept in proper condition. All that Mikhailovich could see was a ship stocked with the cutting-edge technology and service units.

"I'm glad to see that the crew didn't forget to keep their ship up to snuff even when deep in the field," he commented with satisfaction, then nodded toward the elevator. "To the weapons deck."

Tucked in between the crew deck floor and the outer armor, the weapons deck appeared to be one long, low-ceiling corridor that spanned the entire length of the ship between the crew deck and the cargo bay. The entire length of the main gun ran its course here, with javelin missile storage close behind the wing roots, from where the missiles were automatically transported and loaded into the launch tubes via magnetic rails: four tubes in each of the wings, and four more on either side of the main gun.

"This is… very efficient, actually," Mikhailovich murmured as he examined the location of the javelin missile storage compared to the launch tubes' location. "The Alamo has fewer launchers, and they're far more spaced out to the front and the rear of the storage."

"All sixteen tubes can be reloaded within twenty seconds," Jaina supplied.

Mikhailovich nodded. "Much quicker than the ones on the Alamo, that's for sure," he commented. "I've seen enough here. To the cargo bay, then."

Jaina and Marcus shared a silent look of satisfaction. So far so good, they thought as they packed into the main elevator. If things went as smoothly like this, they'd have Mikhailovich out of their hair in no time!

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, and a huge krogan head popped out straight in front of the admiral's face.

"Hey, Shepard!" Wrex shouted excitedly. "We got those illegal mods from Garrus's buddy, Chellick, and already got 'em installed! We oughtta find some suckers for a test run, lest we blow some holes in our ship, cause this baby's eager for some action," he said, then raised his shotgun next to him high and pumped the action lever, then adjusted his armor codpiece.

Marcus managed not to facepalm. Judging from an audible slap from behind him, Jaina had failed in that regard.

The admiral and his adjutant, though, had failed to hear a single word next to seeing a two-hundred kilogram krogan popping up right in their faces. Mikhailovich's shocked gaze shot past Wrex into the cargo bay, seeing Tali and Garrus working next to one of the parked Scorpions, and Liara, who was packing some of her gear into her locker.

"Commander," Mikhailovich spoke slowly. "What are all these aliens doing on this ship?"

"They are the specialists I've hired," Marcus replied.

Mikhailovich's head shot towards him.

"Hired?!" he choked angrily. "A krogan? Asari? Turian?! This is an Alliance vessel, Commander! What are you thinking?!"

"I'm thinking you're letting your own personal feelings cloud your judgment, Admiral, and that it's unbecoming of an officer," Marcus replied. "These people are valued members of my crew. Trash-talking their respective species and treating them as second-class citizens won't win you any hearts and minds."

" _The aliens_ have done nothing to show their hearts and minds are worth to be won! All they've ever done was meddle in our affairs, doing their damned best to force us to do what they want. What would be _unbecoming_ of an officer would be for me to just let them have their way on this ship!"

"Then there is no problem at all because they're not the ones in command. I am," Marcus stated firmly.

Mikhailovich huffed. "Do you even know what color your blood is, Shepard?"

The moment he said it, Mikhailovich knew he was stepping over the line not even an admiral should cross.

"I'd advise you not to go down that path of conversation, Admiral," Marcus replied in low voice. "I've received more wounds in the line of duty than five of your careers combined; I know exactly what color my blood is."

He turned bodily toward him.

"Now. I get where your concern is coming from. I really do. But that doesn't mean that it's justified. I will not allow it to be the basis on which you put my leadership into question, I will not have you put into question the quality of the people that I bring aboard, and I will not have you assuming the Alliance-trained crew is so inept and intimidated by alien presence that they cannot do their jobs properly and crap their pants at the very sight of them. It'd be insulting to all the men and women who stood shoulder to shoulder as we cleansed the Skillian Verge for the Alliance." He lowered his chin and looked at Mikhailovich from underneath a stormy frown. "I'm sure that that's not what you want."

Mikhailovich ground his jaw silently, his gaze locked with Marcus's and not backing down either.

"You've got a smart mouth, Commander," he ground out, then straightened his coat with a sharp tug. "Very well. You've convinced me that the alien… specialists that you, as a Spectre, have hired will not be a disruption to the functioning of this ship. I am willing to leave it at that."

"Glad to know you agree, Admiral," Marcus replied coolly.

Mikhailovich regarded him for a moment more and then nodded toward the engineering bay.

"Show me the ship's core, Commander," he said, mentally throwing the previous argument away.

As Marcus led the Admiral and his adjutant toward the engineering access corridor, Wrex stepped up to Jaina.

"Who's this Grumpy Suit?" he asked, unimpressed.

"A royal pain in the ass," Jaina muttered.

"Well, good to see that your man is calling the shots around here," the krogan replied. "So, about those illegal mods…"

"Good job," Jaina said, clapping him on the shoulder. "So you say you installed them already? Could they be used with our modified weapons without adverse effects?"

"Tali says they're good," he said. "That's good enough for me."

"Good for me, too," she concurred, then glanced toward the engineering, where Marcus was leading the Admiral through the entrance. "I should go."

"Shepard," Wrex nodded and moved off, leaving Jaina who jogged off to engineering.

As she joined up, Mikhailovich was standing in the middle of the spacious deck, gazing up into the swirling mass of element zero suspended between the three arms that generated the containment field.

"Never in my entire life have I seen or heard of the core of _this size_ being stuffed into a ship this small," Mikhailovich said, shaking his head, then went silent for a moment. "Yet, what I find even more incredulous is the sheer effectiveness of it all."

"Its combat records speak for themselves," Marcus said.

"The specs I've received state that its barriers are even more powerful than that of a Berlin-class cruiser," Mikhailovich said.

"Specs say its main gun is about 70%, and its kinetic barriers about 115% as powerful as the ones of a Berlin-class cruiser," Jaina spoke up from the side. "But we have worked out the kinks and optimized the performance during this past couple of months; the ship now has an output as high as 79% and 126% of each, respectively."

Mikhailovich rubbed his lower lip pensively, then looked at Adams who was present for the inspection.

"You're the chief engineer, aren't you?"

"Lieutenant Adams, Gregory, sir," Adams reported.

"Adams," Mikhailovich acknowledged, "I understand the augmentations you've done to the ship are more than just the main gun and barrier output."

"Yes, sir. We've augmented and optimized the powergrid, ensuring that all of our systems can operate above the slated maximum capacity at the same time. We've enhanced the heat sinks, improved on static charge generation, enhanced our engine output – virtually every single system has been improved."

"And what is the reason the Alliance-turian engineering team has failed to incorporate these into the ship?" Mikhailovich asked.

"The ideas for many of those ship improvements actually come from our quarian specialist that the Commander has hired, Tali'Zorah," Adams said. "The engineering team that built the Normandy used standardized methods. We have improved upon that by using quarian experience."

"While I can understand the merit of that, I need to wonder how many regulations have you eschewed in order to achieve this?" Mikhailovich demanded.

"I assure you, Admiral, that I have endeavored to conform the alterations into the Alliance standards. All augments are such that they do not, in any way, disrupt or compromise the standard Alliance systems, methods, or crew operations. The detailed log of augments and alterations has already been sent to Admiral Hackett, and it is being updated regularly when new augments are in store."

"I see," Mikhailovich said pensively, then nodded. "Carry on, Lieutenant."

He made one final glance at the core before he turned back to Marcus.

"I've seen all that I need to see here," he said. "We can return to the CIC. In fact, I believe that I've seen everything that I've needed to see about this ship. Walk me to the exit, Commander."

Marcus inclined his head and escorted Mikhailovich and his adjutant together with Jaina. Soon enough, the four of them stood at the piers right in front of the access gangway. Mikhailovich turned toward them and regarded Marcus and Jaina for a few moments.

"This was an impressive ship," Mikhailovich said. "No doubt about that whatsoever. Although, I'm not sure how the augmentations you've introduced will impact the future members of the class. Though obviously efficient, the augments will need to be given special emphasis in my report to the Joint Military Council; their possible implementation will need to be carefully reviewed by experts.

"And one other thing," he added. "Commander Shepard, when you became a Spectre, your official status within the Alliance was put on ice, everyone knows that, but the fact still remains that you and Jaina Shepard are a couple serving on the same posting. Not that I'm a traditionalist when it comes to interpersonal relationships in the military, but I am still aware that they can complicate matters. I hope you two are and remain very much aware of the risks and dangers this can represent and to always be the exemplar to your subordinates. That is all."

He stood at attention, and Marcus and Jaina followed suit, throwing off a salute which he then returned.

"Godspeed, commanders. Make us proud," he said, then turned on his heal and walked away.

As the admiral and his adjutant left the pier, Marcus blew a sigh of relief and turned to Jaina.

"Well, that went better than I thought it would," he said.

"Sure did," Jaina replied, then she looked toward the airlock, her eyes turning conniving. "And what he said reminded me of something."

She started toward the airlock before Marcus's big hand took hold of her wrist, stopping her.

"Where are you going?" he asked innocently as he gently tugged her back, urging her into his hug.

"Oh, I just wanted to have a word with Joker about this or that," she said noncommittally as she slithered in between his big arms. "Don't worry, it's nothing you need to concern yourself about."

"Oh? Is that so… _mom_?"

Her head shot up to meet his smug smirk before her eyes turned murderous. In a flash, she was out of his grasp and sending a full-body hook to his face that he parried with a big smile and went into a sparring contest with her.

"You knew!" she shouted and growled as she kept sending combos of fists and low kicks that he fought to contain. "You _knew_ , and you kept silent! Traitor! You, and Karin, and I'm gonna _kill_ Joker!"

He laughed amusedly, finally catching her with a combo and spinning her around to pin her with her back against his front.

"What can I say," he spoke with low voice right next to her ear as they panted from exertion, "You know how I say you're so beautiful when you're mad… I was starting to miss it dearly."

She bucked in his grasp, spinning, delivering a low kick that he parried with his shin, followed by a quick combo.

"Mad. I'll. Giveyou. Mad!" she growled through her clenched teeth as she delivered precise combinations, making what was to him an absolutely adorable, pouting sound.

He laughed, blocking, dodging, and returning in kind, forcing her on the defense until he pinned her against the Normandy's outer hull next to the entrance hatch.

They stood there, her left arm pinned above her head, his thigh pressed against her mound, their faces millimeters apart and panting hard as tiny sparks of sweat were starting to glow on their skin. He enjoyed the moment dearly, gazing deep into her story eyes that glared at him from between her hair bangs that flew with her panting.

"I don't know what you're so mad about," he spoke through heavy breaths. "You know every superior has a nickname between his troops."

"Yeah? Well, I'm only 29! I'm too young to be a mom – especially to a shipload of grownup kids!" she exclaimed in a growl, managing to gain a footing and push him away, the two of them going into a close-in grappling contest.

"Oh yeah?" he challenged, enjoying this too much as he spoke between punching and grappling exchanges. "I actually think it's cute! You, me, the mom and dad… a shipload of kids… Aunt Karin to help us rear them… Uncles Pressly and Adams to help keep them in line, and Grandpa Wrex to lead them into trouble."

Succeeding in a feint, he grabbed her and pinned her once more against his front to whisper in her ear:

"And we can even be called the mature couple that seduced a college student."

Well… she had to admit, all he said sounded too accurate and too amusing, but damn her if she let him get away with it… at least at this moment anyway… later maybe, sure, but now…

She used the opening in the poor positioning he had assumed in order to pin her, slipped her leg against his, pushed, and made him lose his balance. She spun, tackling him, and dropping both of them on the ground with a heavy thud.

"Ugh," he grunted, rubbing the back of his head that had struck the floor. "What happened to always letting me win?" he grumbled.

Drained and panting, she clambered on top of him, straddling his crotch and pinning his wrists to the sides in a symbolic demonstration of victory.

"So," she panted from close to his face. "About those sparring mats…"

..


	30. Chapter 30 - Noveria - Pt I

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _Somebody mentioned that they would like to see some gunpoint diplomacy in this chapter. I really liked hearing that. It feels good to hear that there are other people out there that share the same idea as I did when I wrote this chapter. Great minds think alike._

 _And this great mind also happens to be wondering: what would it be like if one were to open up a side-tab to youtube and let the following two OSTs play in the background while they read this chapter:_

 _-Mass Effect Noveria OST (or 'Port Hanshan plaza ambient music'), and,_

 _-Mass Effect 2 - The Illusive suite. (Hint-hint!)_

.

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 27.11.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes, Intrigue, Militaristic…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 30 – Noveria – Pt I**

.

A shimmer of a blue mass effect trail flashed next to the Pax System mass relay. The sleek frigate slashed past the massive structure and arced toward the inner system, its stealth drive going into full power before the sentry satellites even managed to catch the flash.

Marcus and Jaina stood next to each other on the command platform, examining the system's overlay and the diverse signals that were traversing to and from the second planet in the system.

"Not as much traffic as I thought there would be," he commented. "You'd think that a base for a bunch of multi-trillion corporations would have a lot of transport businesses in and about."

"I'm not surprised," she said. "Noveria isn't an industrial center but a rent-a-lab business renting high-end lab complexes to various corps. A thousand creds say they're doing some ethically-questionable research in half of them, and if that's the case, then I'd be very careful as to who I let on and off of that planet."

"Comms too," he said. "They can't allow anything to slip them by."

"Agreed. Any comings or goings would have to be precisely scheduled, and there'd have to be at least some kind of security to enforce it."

He nodded, reaching out to their sensors overlay and pointing out several of the signals on the 3D sensor map.

"Here, here, and this group next to the planet proper, here," he said, rounding the signals up with his forefinger. "Patrols. What do you think? Corvettes?"

"Judging by their movements and signature strength, yes," She replied with a nod, then pointed to another set of signals. "This group that protects the planet proper is a wolfpack of frigates, though, no doubt about it."

"Looks like twenty-four ships in total, not including the defense platforms," Marcus said. "That's a lot of firepower for an icy chunk of a planet."

"I think it's meant as nothing more than a deterrent," she replied, giving him a significant look. "A show of force to sway pirates and slavers away from attacking it. I'd bet those ships are nothing more than privately-built ships with basic armaments. The frigates might have spinal-mounted guns, but that would be it. Their armor would be sub-par compared to any standard military one."

He nodded absentmindedly, his eyes riveted to the overlay, then called out:

"Sensors, how long until sufficient data is collected for an ID?"

"Just about, sir," the sensors operator called. "The VI's finishing up with the signature and silhouette identification now."

An icon in the overlay's corner flashed once, and Jaina pressed it, bringing up the silhouette and thermal pattern capture, and compared them with the known ships in the databases. Two 3D projections popped up in front of them – one a corvette, the other a frigate.

"87% match," she murmured as they both frowned at the images. "It says these are privately-built ships, but…"

He shook his head, then waved an accusing finger at the images. "Those ain't your average private patrol ships, those are full-fledged warships."

"I agree," she said seriously. "Their thermal signature is high as hell; we're talking military-grade powerplant here. And look at the manufacturer."

"Cord-Hislop Aerospace. Aren't they a human firm?"

"Based on Earth, yeah," she said with a frown. "The Alliance has contracts with them for ship production, and it's obvious they copied our standard Alamo class."

"I don't like seeing a potentially high-grade military type of frigates in private hands," Marcus replied.

"Yeah, neither do I," she murmured, frowning as she examined the frigate blueprints. "Why would the NDC even need ships like these? I think it'd be wise for us to keep our stealth field up."

"Agreed," he said, then issued the order out loud. "Maintain our stealth field until I give the clear."

"Aye-aye, sir," the operator replied.

"Pressly, set us up for a close flyby near those frigates," he said. "I want a closer look with our passive scans."

"Yes, sir," Pressly confirmed, setting down to adjusting the approach vectors and maneuvering nodes.

"Sound general quarters," Marcus called.

"Sound general quarters!" Jaina repeated, and the ship was promptly flooded with the dull claxons calling to battle stations.

Thirty-some minutes later, the Normandy was sliding silently and undetected into the orbit of Noveria, at no more than three kilometers behind the five-frigate patrol group.

"What can you tell me?" Marcus asked as the myriad of passive scanners picked up the tiny atoms of the frigate's surface.

"This close, I'm detecting gravitational distortion factor of 12 micro g-s from each of their ships, sir," the sensors operator reported.

"Definitely a military frigate-grade eezo core," Jaina noted.

"Same goes for their armor and weapons, ma'am," the operator added. "By the luminous refraction, I'm pretty sure they use the standard Alliance ship armor composite, and I'm detecting standard Alliance point defense lasers and weapon hatches as well."

"Are these ships' identification codes even in our databases?" Jaina asked.

"No ma'am," the tactical officer replied pointedly. "What's more, their IFFs flag them as civilian vessels sporting defense armaments only!"

"If those Javelin missile pods are defense armaments, then I'm Blasto, the Hanar Spectre," Marcus spoke grimly, then addressed their comm officer. "What have you been picking up on the chatter?"

"Nothing but the standard ship-to-ship exchange from the frigates, sir," she replied. "The surface-to-space communication is scarce, save for the corporate channels. We've already hacked into those, but the VI is not picking up anything interesting in the airwaves."

"Alright," Marcus spoke up, deciding on the course of action. "Weapons and defenses on alert standby. Prepare to drop the stealth field on my mark and open all heat and radiation vents. Sensors, I want you to initiate a full active sweep on those ships the moment we break cover; I want to know what their crew had for breakfast."

A chorus of _yessir_ -s echoed across the CIC, followed by the rapid chatter of preparations.

"Main gun and javelin launchers ready!"

"Point defense lasers charged!"

"Barriers at full power!"

"Sensor sweep ready and at standby!"

"Stealth system ready!" the last report came.

Marcus spoke up:

"Break cover, engage the vents and scans."

The Normandy flared on the sensors like a supernova, swiping the unknown frigates with a powerful multi-spectrum active scan.

For a few seconds, there was no reaction. And then, the frigate wolfpack spun in place, beginning to turn in full toward the Normandy.

"Engage the active sensor disruption matrix," Marcus ordered, and the Normandy's hull polarized and began to bounce off the active sensor scans of the frigate wolfpack just as theirs too had blocked the Normandy's sensors in turn.

"Sir, they're hailing us," the comms officer called.

Marcus nodded, and an angry human male voice came through the speakers:

"Alliance vessel, this is Captain Steve Muller of the Noveria Defense Flotilla! We are tracking you with our weapons. Unless you want to be fired upon, you will state your business, and explain how the hell have you managed to get behind us without detection!"

"This is Commander Marcus Shepard of the SSV Normandy, here on Spectre business," Marcus spoke coolly. "As for the latter, you do not get to know. You do, however, get to explain exactly why I am seeing five frigates with military grade weapons, armor, and barriers transmitting IFF-s reserved for unarmed civilian vessels which are not in our databases."

There was a moment of pause.

"Commander Shepard, these ships are privately-owned property, orbiting a privately owned planet, and outside of both Citadel and Alliance jurisdiction," the man responded. "We are not in the need to oblige to your requests."

"Charge the main gun, open missile hatches," Marcus called out, intended for Muller to be able to hear as well.

Muller barked an incredulous laugh. "Are you serious? We outnumber you five t –"

"Here's what's going to happen," Marcus spoke loudly on top of him. "You're going to look at your sensors operator and see him panicking. He's then going to inform you of our main gun muzzle energy bleed, and then he's going to inform you of our eezo core gravitational distortion."

He waited for the span of three breaths.

"Now that the length measurement has found you lacking, we can get down to business," he continued. "One: your transponder signals are fake. Two: Faking a transponder signal is a direct act of piracy. Three: Pirates are to be shot on sight. You have thirty seconds to strike your colors."

He cut the comm.

"Cloak us! Veer off!" he called out.

A ping of engaging IES echoed through the CIC as the Normandy disappeared from all sensors and maneuvered away from its last known location, its spinal gun staying firmly locked on its targets through the motion.

" _I've got the bead on them, Commander_ ," Joker reported calmly.

"Sir," the comm officer called, a frown on her face. "I'm pretty sure I'm detecting an encrypted transmission directed off-system. Strangely, it's not heading toward the relay, but deeper into the Horsehead Nebula. The refraction's off-angle; I can't determine the exact direction."

He merely nodded, the countdown timer Jaina set up firmly in the corner of his eye.

Finally, as the final seconds drew to a close, the sensors operator called:

"Sir! Hostiles powering down their engines; powergrid going down to 25%; vent output reducing!"

As soon as he finished, the transmission came through, with Muller sounding much more subdued than before:

"This is Captain Muller of the Noveria Defense Flotilla. We surrender to Spectre authority."

Marcus ordered for the IES to disengage and reactivated the comm lines.

"The fake transponders – explain," he said succinctly.

"We… were hoping to keep a low profile against possible pirate attacks. We were hoping that the fake IFFs would make them lower their guard, giving us an edge."

"Still sounds like a bullshit excuse to me," Marcus said. "But you're not my target, so I don't have the time. Your hull scans, specs, and energy signatures have been sent to the Alliance Command. Noveria being in their front yard, this stunt with five military-grade frigates faking their IFFs, you can be sure they'll send a full patrol through here to have a word with you. Do not leave the system; if you do, it'll cement your guilt. Now patch me through to Noveria Flight Control for an approach vector and a berth."

"Understood, Spectre," the man replied tightly. "patching you through now. I am obligated to inform you that your identity will need to be confirmed. If confirmation cannot be established, your vessel will be impounded."

Marcus merely barked an audible laugh, then cut the comm to him and spoke into the comms, "Joker, get us down to that planet, and make the maneuvers flashy."

"Aye-aye, Commander," came Joker's voice, a smile evident in the tone. "One display of shock and awe coming right up!"

"All crews, set Condition 3*!" Marcus called through the comms.

The Normandy spun and shot out like a bullet round arcing and diving into the atmosphere within seconds, its mass effect emissions leaving a blazing trail on other ship's sensors.

The ship pierced the cold atmosphere, diving beneath the cloud band and into the swirling mass of wind-swept snowflakes.

"I don't like the fact that those ships were there," Marcus said. "It reeks of something shady."

"I know," Jaina agreed and raised her head from where she was typing away on the console. "I've taken the liberty of writing up a report and recommendation to the Alliance Command to place the Horsehead Nebula under better surveillance. I just need your stamp."

"As efficient as ever," he said, smirking as he stepped up and gave his electronic signature.

Jaina just looked up at him silently, her eyes smiling brightly, soundless words passing between them.

There was a slight jolt through the ground, and Joker's voice came through the comms:

" _We have a touchdown. Is it just me, or are those docking clamps purposefully made to jolt us up a bit?_ "

"A prelude to a welcoming committee," Jaina muttered dryly.

"No doubt about it," Marcus said, then tapped the comms. "Ground specialist team, gear up and meet me at the CIC." He removed his finger from the comm button, and spoke to Jaina, "You too."

"Yes, sir," she replied.

Ten minutes later, the entire team was ready and waiting next to the airlock as Marcus and Jaina stepped pass them toward the exit, all of them fully armed and armored.

Marcus and Jaina were the first to exit the ship, and they stopped just as they stepped out of the gangplank and took a broad, sweeping look all around and above them throughout the docking pier. Wafts of cold air from the main ship entrance were washing over them in waves, ignored in entirety by the hardened men and women who now walked toward the main entrance of the nigh-infamous Port Hanshan.

"Company," Wrex was the first to speak up, noticing a contingent of security personnel waiting for them in the broad open space in front of the entrance.

"Looks like the main welcoming committee you spoke of," Marcus murmured, addressing Jaina.

"Looks like," she smirked mirthlessly.

"Shit, Shepards, I've felt more like a VIP in the last month than in the previous hundred years," Wrex spoke up wryly.

They reached the security envoys, a squad of eight in total, including their apparent head of security, a typically cute east-asian woman of the typically undeterminable age, who stood imperiously at the dead center of the welcoming group.

"That's far enough," she spoke up, raising her hand with the other being held behind her back as if she was some sort of commissar, and her voice cold and unemotional like the carved stone walls that surrounded them. "I am Captain Maeko Matsuo, head of Port Hanshan security."

"Captain Muller has already notified you who I am," Marcus stated.

"You are an unscheduled arrival," the Asian woman spoke. "We need to confirm your credentials."

"If you really have taken the time to confirm my credentials, you would have received an alert flag long before now," Marcus retorted, looking pointedly at the woman. "I suggest you find a better explanation and stop stalling."

"Hey!" a blonde woman, part of the Asian woman's entourage spoke up, her tone rude and sounding as if she had had one drink too many the previous night. "We are the law here! Show some respect."

"I am a Spectre," Marcus replied pointedly. " _You_ show some wisdom."

"A load of horse crap, ma'am," the blonde replied. "There are no human Spectres."

"Shepard has been a Spectre for two months," Garrus stepped up, his deathly glare narrowing down on the blonde woman. "Even the lowest slum rat on Omega has heard of it, so you can cut the crap. I _am_ a police officer; we all know you're stalling."

The blonde sneered at him. Matsuo spoke up instead:

"The comm traffic in and out of Noveria is strictly monitored and controlled by the NDC. It will take some time for your credentials to be confirmed."

"Sounds like more stalling to me," Wrex spoke up.

"Call it what you will, but this is how it is," Matsuo replied. "You can wait with us at the precinct while the issue is resolved. Also, since weapons are not allowed on Noveria, we will need to confiscate them. Sergeant Stirling, relieve them of their weapons."

The blonde woman moved to step forward with an ugly smirk on her face, and then an armored fist smashed into her face, sending her tumbling down on the floor. There was a rush of weapon clicks, and by the time Stirling managed to get her bearings and look up from where she bathing the floor with the blood from her broken nose, Captain Matsuo was looking down the barrel of Marcus's pistol and into his cold, unblinking eyes.

Marcus spoke slowly,

"What misbegotten logic made you think a Spectre would allow you to relieve him of his weapons?"

Matsuo held on to her stony face, but her eyes were dancing around rapidly.

"Commander Shepard, you're in violation of Noveria's law," she said, a hint of tension in her voice.

"Oh, believe me, there will be many more things I will violate today if you don't cut the crap," Marcus retorted coldly, his eyes unblinking beneath his thick frown.

"I have a whole platoon waiting right behind those –"

"Meat to the grinder – all of them," he cut her off gruffly. "My team has faced whole battalions of slavers, terrorists, and geth, time and time again. We've seen more action in the past two months than most soldiers see in their lifetime. A platoon of private troops? Nothing but target practice."

There was a moment of utter silence, broken only by Stirling's sniffs and shuffling as she tried to staunch her nosebleed through a still lingering daze. Matsuo opened her mouth. Her voice was shaky.

"I'm gonna count to three –"

Fury flashed in Marcus's eyes.

"No, _I'm_ gonna count to three!" he growled, pushing the gun closer to her face.

"…One,"

"TWO!" He barked.

Suddenly, there was a crackle from a nearby set of speakers, and a woman's voice came through:

"Captain Matsuo, stand down! Their credentials have been confirmed. Spectres will have full cooperation of the NDC."

Matsuo swallowed, then slowly motioned for her men to stand down, her eyes riveted to Marcus's vortices of rage that held her like a death trap. He held her like that at his gunpoint for a moment more before he finally holstered his gun, followed by the rest of the Normandy's team.

Matsuo finally spoke:

"Parasini-san will greet you at the security station at the lobby," she said simply, motioning with her hand toward the entrance.

Without further word, Marcus motioned his team to follow him, and the eight people walked out from the cold air of Noveria's docks into the warm interior of the Port Hanshan proper, walking past the assembled backup team of ERCS guards that filled the lobby.

Matsuo watched them go, and finally slumped with a sigh of relief.

"Captain?" one of her men, a turian, called to her questioningly.

"Send word to other ERCS teams spread across town," Matsuo spoke listlessly. "They are to keep a close eye on the Spectre and his people."

"Yes, ma'am," the turian replied with a nod.

"And someone help Stirling," Matsuo added, then moved to walk away, leaving Stirling to angrily shrug off other people's help as she struggled to stand up.

Marcus and his group had crossed the small lobby area by that time and had approached a small security station. A woman in her thirties, with an elegantly beautiful Mediterranean face, her hair styled in a bun and wearing an equally elegant magenta dress and a knowing smirk on her glossy lips waited for them.

"Commander Shepard," she spoke up as she walked toward them. "My name is Gianna Parasini, an assistant to Port Hanshan's administrator, Anoleis. Allow me to welcome you to Port Hanshan and to apologize for the inconvenience at the entrance."

She raised her hand for a handshake.

Marcus glanced blankly at her hand, then slowly unclasped and removed his gauntlet, and took her hand in his.

The chemical imprints in her body crossed the threshold and sent a burst of memories through Marcus's mind.

He saw her as what she really was – a corporate police officer, one specialized in white crime, and undercover as Anoleis's secretary for the search of evidence that Anoleis was taking a cut that he wasn't supposed to. All the suspicions of what the salarian was doing were suddenly known to Marcus, from the small bribes and thefts, down to major breakings of procedure by ordering the closedown of Synthetic Insights offices for the purpose of his own gains. Terrific. A slimeball salarian.

And she expected him to play by this man's and Noveria's rules? They were delusional.

"I don't like to be intentionally stalled like that, Miss Parasini," Marcus said coldly, pointedly not letting go of her hand. "Make sure it is not done again, and the apology will be accepted."

He released her hand and went on to replace his gauntlet.

"I'm sorry, Commander, it's just that Noveria works by certain unique regulations, and a Spectre's presence disrupts those," Gianna said. "We needed to make sure proper arrangements were met…"

Marcus sighed impatiently and very audibly.

"… but, I see how that could have made us look," she added. "One of my duties is orientation of new arrivals. May I inquire as to the nature of your visit to Noveria?"

"You can't possibly tell me you don't know, or cannot guess as to why I came here," Marcus said with a shake of his head.

Gianna inclined her head in acquiescence. "True, but I did not wish to assume," she said. "If it is Spectre Saren you wish to talk about, then I can only point you to a higher authority, in this case, Administrator Anoleis."

Marcus thought on something, then exchanged a silent glance with Jaina. Unspoken words passed between them. It was then that Garrus took a step forward and spoke out loud:

"If you are in charge of the orientation of the new arrivals, then you are also required to know who and when is arriving at Noveria at any given time. You are also in a position to requisition any and all detailed data on their whereabouts – especially someone as important as Saren."

Gianna looked slightly surprised.

"You seem to be knowledgeable in administrative police work, Mr…?" she trailed off.

"Garrus Vakarian," he said. "Don't let my phantom-class armor fool you, I am still an active officer of the Citadel Security."

Gianna inclined her head. "I suppose you know what you're talking about, then," she said, then nodded. "True, I do have access to that data. If you require exact dates and movements of our people, I will have to consult our databases. However, I can tell you outright that Saren Arterius has not visited Noveria in the last three months. The only recent visit was from his associate, Matriarch Benezia, and that was some six or seven days ago."

Liara pushed her way forward.

"Benezia was here on Noveria?!" she asked in alarm.

Gianna looked momentarily taken aback by the outburst.

"She still is," she replied, looking around at confusion. "The last I heard, she went out to Peak 15, a Binary Helix private lab complex. Is there a problem?"

"Matriarch Benezia is confirmed to be Saren's accomplice in Eden Prime attack," Jaina replied grimly. "Now that we know she's here, we're not leaving until we bring her in or bring her down."

"Corporate Executives don't like having outside problems dumped in their lap," Giana spoke in haughty warning, looking at her. "Miss...?"

"Missus. Commander Jaina Shepard, the wife," she said, nodding her head sideways toward Marcus. "And stop trying to play corporate bureaucracy bullshit. The Corporate Executives have dumped this particular hot problem in their own lap. They've known _exactly_ what Saren has done on Eden Prime all this time. Them playing mum about Saren being one of Binary Helix Noveria's major shareholders has put them in the very bad spotlight with a certain very powerful trio on the Citadel."

Gianna cast a sobered gaze from Marcus to Jaina, then spoke:

"I'm afraid that for anything of that regard, you'd need to speak with Administrator Anoleis directly."

Marcus raised his hand invitingly. "Lead the way," he said.

The woman motioned them with her hand and led the way out toward the elevators.

All nine of them managed to pile up neatly into a spacious elevator and were quickly transported to the huge lobby that Gianna called the Plaza.

As it turned out, the entirety of Port Hanshan was built inside of a single huge structure that incorporated spaceport docks, large hotel complex, private apartments, garages, as well as numerous corporate offices, bars, restaurants and trading emporiums arranged around a large in-doors plaza they were traversing right now.

Marcus noted the odd monolithic and angular architecture made of thick concrete walls. The plaza was built on several levels connected by stairs and stone bridges that crossed hot water flows, with warm steam rising up from them to bring warmth to the air. Still, a sense of chill remained as wind-driven snow drifts flew across the massive windows that domed the whole area.

"Nice décor here," Kaidan noted as the glanced around. "Expensive, but tasteful."

"Yeah, I get what you're saying, Lt," Ashley spoke up, nodding. "Rock gardens and waterfalls – very zen."

"Do not be fooled by these civilized surroundings, Chief," Liara spoke knowingly, looking at her. "This place may look nice, but it is shrouded in secrets and lies."

"She has a point," Garrus agreed. "Corporations at places like this like to hire their own private security forces; makes it easier for them to hide the fact that they're breaking the law."

"I'll say," Wrex spoke wryly. "I used to do a lotta freelance business out here some years back. The fastest way to climb the corporate ladder is to eliminate the guy above you. Guess who they called for that. Heh… these people will smile to your face while they stab you in the back."

"Not to the customer, though," Tali said. "It's bad for business."

"Sounds like you speak from experience," Jaina noted.

"My people have dealt with corporations on Noveria in the past," the young quarian explained. "They were always expensive, but they never asked any questions."

"Exactly the problem; it makes you wonder how much they know about Saren, yet kept to themselves," Jaina said pointedly to Marcus.

"What matters right know is that they know everything we need to know about Benezia," he replied. "She is the one that holds the keys to Saren."

Gianna led them into a lobby that led to a set of offices. She walked up to a desk and spoke:

"Administrator Anoleis's office is right behind mine, that way. I'll let him know you're here, immediately."

Marcus moved to walk around, but Gianna stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, and before you go in, please, allow me to give you a friendly advice, Commander," she said. "I understand your methods of operation as a soldier, but you can't just bludgeon your way through Corporate bureaucracy. You should learn to use subtler methods."

Marcus gave her a measuring look, then spoke calmly:

"Do not worry about that, Miss Parasini. The last Corporate Executive who tried to use bureaucracy against me died thirty seconds later from a bullet wound. But, how about this," he said and pointed at her terminal with his chin. "Keep an ear as to my conversation with the Administrator. I suspect that it will reward your endeavors with your business concerning the Administrator greatly."

Gianna's eyes were wide, and she swallowed a lump. Removing her hand from his shoulder, she composed herself, and then pressed a button at her terminal.

"Administrator Anoleis?" she queried through the comm, her voice honey-sweet.

There was a moment of pause, before a somewhat irritated voice came through, obviously belonging to a salarian:

"Yes, what, _what_?!" the man questioned.

"Commander Shepard is here to see you," she replied.

"Right, fine. Come in," he replied.

She ended the comm and pointed them wordlessly where to go.

Marcus led his team around a separating wall and walked into a spacious office. Two assault drones that hovered near the far wall guarded a broad office desk with a single salarian seated on it. Nobody else was there.

Marcus turned his head to look at Tali, giving her a silent cue. The quarian slipped behind Wrex inconspicuously, using his bulk as a shield as she began to work her omni-tool.

"You will forgive me if I don't stand up," the salarian spoke up dismissively as they reached the desk, looking straight at Marcus. "I have no time to entertain refugees from that urban blight called Earth who then fled to be space vagabonds."

Marcus walked up to the desk slowly, not taking his eyes off Anoleis, and sat down leisurely at one of the chairs, with Jaina taking the other one in the same manner. He kept his eyes on the salarian, his gaze boring into him, and he kept his mouth shut, letting the silence rise to uncomfortable levels.

"Well?" Salarian spoke up impatiently after a few moments. "I have lots of important business to attend to, Commander. I have no time to attend your silence."

"Yet, you do have the time to read my service record," Marcus replied.

"Only a fool enters negotiations without knowing everything there is to know about the parties involved," salarian said snidely. "So, yes, I've read your record. I know your tendencies."

Marcus kept staring at him silently. After another few seconds of silence, Anoleis spoke again:

"Every minute of my time that you waste costs the company twelve credits, Commander. I will keep the running tally."

"Wasting?" Marcus asked, then shook his head slowly. "I'm not the one wasting your time at all, Mr. Anoleis."

"Oh, and I suppose _I'm_ the one wasting my own time, now?!" the Salarian asked sarcastically. "How is that, pray tell?"

"You've read my file, Mr. Anoleis," Marcus replied, staring at him unblinkingly. "You've said so yourself. That means that you know _exactly_ as to why I'm here. I am being silent because I am waiting for you to supply me with any and all information you have on Saren and Matriarch Benezia."

"Your fellow Spectre Arterius is a major shareholder to Binary Helix – everyone knows that," Anoleis said in annoyance.

Marcus took a deep breath through his nose, rolling his eyes as he worked to reign in the mounting anger. He began to unclasp his gauntlet as Anoleis kept speaking:

"Same goes for Matriarch Benezia. Everybody knows she is Spectre Saren's executor and that she has all the rights to –"

Marcus jerked forward suddenly, reaching out with his bared hand. Biotics flared, and Anoleis's head was grasped in a negative biotic field, yanking it violently toward Marcus's outstretched hand. One of Anoleis's horns landed in his grasp, and he wrenched it into the desk – _hard!_

" _Waaaa! Yaaaaaarrrrgh!_ " Anoleis let out a high-pitched squeal as his head slammed into the hard surface.

His arms flew across his desk, instinctively trying to help their body escape the pain, before they settled, pushing against the flat surface.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Anoleis shouted in a mix of pain and anger. "Security will – _Aaaaargh!_ " he squealed as Marcus wrenched his horn again.

Jaina stood up slowly and languidly from the armchair she sat at, and walked a slow circle around the desk, stopping behind and to the side of Anoleis who was sprawled across the desk.

"Let's get something straight, shall we?" she spoke coldly. "First of all, you will cease trying our patience by calling Saren one of our 'fellow Spectres'. Your pretending to not know his Spectre clearance was revoked is not gonna fly. Clear?"

Anoleis was silent, pressing one particular command on his terminal repeatedly instead.

"The drones won't help you now," Jaina said, knowing what the man was trying to do. "Our tech specialist has taken care of them; same with any comms in or out. Now, you have read Spectre Shepard's service record. You've seen what he and the rest of us are capable of. You've seen what he did on Torfan and what he did to ExoGeni CEO on Earth; frankly, I don't understand how you thought you could insult us as much as you did and not end up in a world of hurt. Your life is at our mercy, Anoleis. Understand that. So, cut the bullshit and start telling us what we need to know."

A dark realization crept and settled in Anoleis's bones and guts. He swallowed hard and his eyes bulged open as he remembered the viral extranet clip that showed ExoGeni CEO's execution, and he began to realize the gravity of his predicament.

"Hey, Shepard," Wrex suddenly spoke up in the silence, "I call ribs on his liver."

"It's 'dibs'," Ashley corrected him.

"Right, dibs," Wrex smirked.

Anolies whimpered.

"Alright!" he pleaded. "Alright, I'll tell you everything I know, I swear!"

"Saren," Marcus spoke gruffly.

"The last time he was here or made an open contact was approximately three months ago," Anoleis spoke quickly. "That is all I know of him."

"Benezia?" Marcus queried again.

"She came here seven days ago and went directly to Peak 15, without so much as a bathroom stop. There was some kind of incident there – I don't know what, I swear – but whatever it is, it must be important if Saren sent Benezia to handle it. She came with a personal escort of nineteen asari commandos, all of them unarmed, and three heavy cargo containers, all sealed. I don't know what was in them, but they passed weapons screening, so we never looked."

"What screening hardware did you use?" Tali asked from the sides.

"Ah… a standard ERCS "Velder-3" scanner system," Anoleis replied.

"That junk?!" Tali asked incredulously. "Commander, if they had any geth armatures or primes in there to scramble the signal, a Velder wouldn't pick up a damn thing!"

"Geth?!" Anoleis asked incredulously. "W-we had no reason to assume there'd be geth in those containers!"

"No reason to assume there'd be geth?" Garrus spoke up incredulously. "Nine thousand dead in a vicious geth attack on Eden Prime, confirmed to be led by Saren Arterius, whose confirmed accomplice in the act is Matriarch Benezia?" Garrus shook his head, speaking grimly. "Nobody is that ill-informed. _Nobody!_ That means you had to have been Benezia's accomplice, and that you're purposefully hiding and abating a wanted terrorist."

"No, please, no!" Anoleis wailed. "T-that's not true! We just followed regulations! Yes! That's how the regulations on Noveria are!"

"Don't go hiding behind regulations, you son of a bitch!" Ashley growled angrily as she stepped forward, with Kaidan holding her back. "Nine thousand one hundred and twelve! That's how many human lives were lost! I knew those people!"

"That's enough, Ash," Kaidan urged her calmly, and she obeyed.

"Please, Spectre Shepard," Anoleis whined from where he was pinned against the desk. "Even if I did know what Benezia was transporting, I couldn't have acted. Regulations are clear!"

"Clear?" Marcus asked grimly. "Well, I sincerely hope the NDC Board of Directors explains it like _that_ when the pissed-off Systems Alliance drops a fleet over their heads. I don't think any of you realize how lucky you are that it's me instead of them here. Yet you figured it'd be okay to piss me off. Now, I'm _really_ eager to make your life miserable. I wonder how your precious Board of Directors will feel once they know it was you who was responsible for the twelve-inch probe the Alliance Military shoves up their assess – because _also_ _you_ have allowed geth onto this world."

"Alright! Alright, dammit!" Anoleis squealed. "Maybe we can cut a deal? I apologize, plus give you a very generous compensation for the trouble we put you through!"

"I don't need the small change, I'm a Spectre."

"Not small change, I have almost thirty million stored!"

Jaina snorted. "An ordinary administrator? I don't buy it."

"It's true! I was conning the NDC, using their money for my own trades, reaping the profits and returning the main part back before anybody noticed. That, plus cutting deals to the side, inflating contract prices and putting extra money in my pocket. I'm a wealthy man. If you can forget about this, you can also become wealthier than you are now!"

"Not gonna happen, I'm afraid," came Gianna Parasini's honey-sweet voice from the office doors as she walked through. "Let me reintroduce myself, Mr. Anoleis: Gianna Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs."

She strutted into the office, stepping behind the prone Anoleis and securing his hands behind his back with a pair of handcuffs, with Marcus finally releasing the salarian's horn.

"Dammit," Anoleis muttered in defeat. "You've listened to everything on the intercom, haven't you? Bitch!"

"Oh, tut-tut," Gianna chastised sweetly. "The Board of Directors now has the proof it needed of your corruption." She turned to Marcus. "Thanks, Shepard; I didn't even have to change out of my dress. How _did_ you really know who I am?"

"I have resources," Marcus said noncommittally as he replaced his gauntlet back over his hand.

"One of those 'if I tell you, I'd need to kill you' things?" she asked, raising her hands. "Forget it, I don't want to know. But, why did you help me?"

"Because, unlike Anoleis, you are in a position to help me," he said.

"I'm… not sure how much more information I can give you, Commander," Parasini replied dubiously. "What Anoleis told you is the truth, and that includes the fact that we don't know what exactly is going on at Peak 15. I…"

She trailed off suddenly, her finger reaching out to a hidden earbud in her ear as a set of instructions was being delivered.

"Understood," she replied to the unknown party, then moved to input some commands into Anoleis's desk terminal.

"It seems that my bosses are interested in helping you out, Commander," she said. "They said an interested party wants to talk to you about Peak 15. Let me just set up this conference real quick."

"Like I said," Marcus bluffed, taking advantage of the development, "you _are_ in a position to help me, Miss Parasini."

She paused in her typing to level a shocked expression his way before she hurriedly finished setting up the conference.

A holographic projector mounted on the ceiling sent a holographic beam down onto the center of the room, with Marcus and his group moving to make a semi-circle a few paces away from it. Gianna, meanwhile, grabbed Anoleis and began dragging him out of the office.

"See you around the Galaxy, Commander!" she called. "I owe you a beer!"

The doors closed behind her, and Marcus and his group turned their full attention toward the holographic beam. There was an electronic chirp, and the hologram slowly materialized into a full figure of a middle-aged human man, gray-haired and immaculately dressed, sporting a cigar between the fingers of his hand, and an air of unscrupulous confidence.

Marcus recognized those cold blue cybernetic eyes immediately. It was the same man whose holographic projection he'd seen at ExoGeni headquarters almost two months before; it was not someone who could be easily forgotten.

"Commander Shepard," the man said, exhaling the cigarette smoke.

Marcus took a couple of steps toward the hologram, his eyes glaring daggers at the mysterious man.

"Why am I not surprised to see you at a place like this," he stated more than asked.

"My company has a broad spectrum of ventures throughout the galaxy, Commander," the man replied. "It is only logical for us to have our own research facilities on Noveria."

"I've seen you on ExoGeni headquarters meeting, but you're not ExoGeni," Marcus stated, walking around the holographic projection slowly. "Are you Binary Helix? Never mind; I couldn't trust you even if you did answer truthfully. You were there when I warned you of what would happen if I found you experimenting with living humans again, yet, here you are, apparently a member of Noveria's Executive Board."

"An associate, more accurately," the man said, dragging from the cigarette. "As for the experiments, I can assure you that we're doing none that are in the spirit of the one ExoGeni did on Feros. And I can assure you I'm not Binary Helix, either. The truth of the matter is that Saren Arterius and I have a history – an unpleasant history from the period of the First Contact War, long ago. As such, I have taken steps to ensure my interests are protected from him. One of such steps was planting informants in the Binary Helix corp, specifically the Peak 15 research facility."

"You want to trade information," Jaina said, narrowing her eyes.

"No," the mysterious man replied. "I want to _give_ you information, free of charge."

"Why?" Marcus asked warily.

"Because despite whatever misgivings you might have, I _am_ a human patriot," the man stated. "And whatever Saren is trying to do will definitely end with many more humans getting killed."

Marcus shared a brief, wordless conversation with Jaina.

"Speak your piece," he said, turning back to the man.

"Before the weather closed in, Hanshan received a Code Omega from the Peak 15," the man spoke. "Code Omega means a terminal breach in safety protocols. No one goes up until the crew sends an all-clear."

"That much was obvious," Marcus said. "You need to tell me more than that."

"And I will," the man replied. "The Peak 15 was developed for the purpose of researching bio-weapons – specifically, the ones that live, breathe and walk."

"Alien franchise much?" Ashley spoke up, drawing the attention of her teammates.

"I'm afraid that unlike the vintage movies, what we're dealing with here is very much real, Miss Williams," the man said.

Marcus narrowed his eyes.

"You seem to be too well informed," he said, not trying to hide both suspicion and hostility. "I don't like dealing with people if my cards are turned face up."

"Your team's complement is not exactly a top secret, Commander," the man replied. "One needs only look at a few _very_ _public_ records and vid recordings to find out exactly who everyone on your team is, and then to find their public service records. As you might as well imagine, I value my privacy very much, and like to know who I'm dealing with, too."

Marcus was silent for a moment.

"Fair enough," he acquiesced. "Tell me what is all this with Peak 15 facility. What kind of bio weapons were they developing?"

The mysterious man took a drag of his cigarette, tapped the ashes off of it, and then exhaled, saying only one word:

"Rachni."

"What?!" Wrex barked roughly, unfolding his crossed arms and stepping forward.

"I assure you it's true, Urdnot Wrex," the man said. "Even though I have no verified images, recordings, or data, no sane man would joke about something like this, and that includes my inside informant."

"Maybe," Marcus nodded. "But we are here, and you're there, hidden behind your anonymity. This could all be a poor attempt at a hoax, and we wouldn't know who or where you are, or the name of your company or organization."

The mysterious man was taking another inhale of his cigarette.

"True on all accounts," he said. "But false or not, your mission parameters don't change. You will go to the Peak 15 whatever the case. But I have given you this information free of charge – a courtesy to relay friendly intentions – so that if we happen to do business in the future, you can rest assured that my goals are aligned with yours – in protecting humanity against threats like these, or of any _other_ kind."

There was pointedness at that last statement that neither Marcus nor Jaina missed, sharing a silent glance of understanding.

"In any case," the mysterious man continued, "I have also stepped in to ensure you have clearances to leave Port Hanshan via surface route in a ground terrain vehicle since the shuttles are grounded due to blizzard. With this, I have given you my two cents of information. What you do with it is up to you entirely, but I do hope you prevail in your endeavors against Saren… _and_ the Reapers."

His holographic hand touched an invisible command and the hologram winked out of existence.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Reapers aren't exactly a public knowledge," Garrus spoke ominously. "How did that man know about them?"

"I can think of a number of ways," Jaina said. "But whatever it is, one thing is for sure: that man is not a corporate director."

"Agreed," Marcus said. "He has all the traits of a shadowman – a person behind the curtains that pulls the strings of governments and corporations."

"Maybe he's the Shadow Broker," Kaidan offered.

"That guy?" Wrex grunted. "No way. He might work for him, but he's not the one. I've been around and did a lot of business for the Shadow Broker. This guy ain't it."

"How can you be so sure?" Garrus asked.

Wrex looked around the high office walls pointedly.

"I'd prefer not to spill my trade secrets here," he said. "No way to know who's watching, as you might as well have witnessed. We've spent several sentences too long in this place already."

"Fair enough," Marcus nodded. "We need to get to Peak 15. That is our main goal now, and this mysterious human is something else entirely. We will take the Scorpions up there and use them to clear any geth presence that might happen to be outside of the compound."

"Uh, but the blizzard…?" Ashley asked innocently. "Aren't shuttles grounded because flying isn't possible?"

"Please, Chief," Tali spoke with haughty confidence, "Our Scorpions use Rhinok 550-H hover engines that are used on helium-3 collectors. We can withstand a Jovian giant class gale, remember? This little blizzard is just a nuisance."

"Huh. I guess having high-end gear really does pay off," Ash said.

Fifteen minutes later, the two Scorpions flew out of the Port Hanshan main docking bays, arcing toward the Aleutsk Valley, their mighty drives helping them tear through the violent snow storm like bolts.

"So, Wrex, why don't you tell us what you had to say about the Shadow Broker," Marcus asked via tight-beamed comm so that all eight of people in the two vehicles could be a part of the conversations.

"I've been through the Galaxy at large for the past four hundred years," he said. "I rose quickly through the throng of all others mercs and bounty hunters, but back then, there was no Shadow Broker. The first Shadow Broker came around some hundred and ten years ago, give or take."

"Wait, _what_?!" Kaidan spoke up incredulously. "The first one? How do you know there's been more than one? I thought nobody ever met the Shadow Broker."

"True, but though Shadow Broker never appeared in person anywhere, and nobody ever saw him, he did tend to have direct conversations with his agents or customers," Wrex said. "The conversations were always done through a voice modulator, so you could never tell who you were speaking to.

"But, after decades of doing business with the guy, anyone would begin to notice small things that make him distinct. It's not the voice I'm talking about, it's the way in which someone speaks – the words he'd use, the way he makes a sentence, the pauses, the inflections… a voice modulator cannot hide those."

"So, what you're saying is that at some point you've noticed a change in the manner in which the Shadow Broker spoke, isn't it?" Jaina noticed.

"Precisely. It happened about… fifty years ago, now. I was doing a certain assignment for the Shadow Broker, and it demanded that I report in periodically directly to him. After one of the reports, I have noticed that the person who I reported it to was not the same person that I made the previous contact with. I might be one of the few that have deduced that fact, but I was wise enough to keep my mouth shut, at least for the dust to settle."

"You think someone ousted the previous Shadow Broker, or that he just died of old age?" Marcus asked.

Wrex chuckled. "Something tells me you don't get to just die of old age in the shadow business line of work, Shepard."

"A fair point," he acquiesced.

"So, who do you think the first Shadow Broker was?" Ashley asked with interest. "An asari? Salarian? Turian maybe?"

"Personally, I'm pretty sure that the first Shadow Broker was a batarian," Wrex stated.

"You're kidding!" Kaidan exclaimed.

"Not such a big of a stretch, if you think about it," Jaina said. "Batarians are culturally inclined to keep a lot of secrets. Just look at the sheer size of the propaganda machine they have around Hegemony space. Disinformation and hiding the real information are their trade."

"Maybe, but that was not how I got to the conclusion of who he was," Wrex said. "Like I said, it was the way in which he spoke. He spoke imperiously, regally, as if he liked the sound of his own voice, as if he liked building a status around himself. He spoke like a real high ruling caste batarian.

"And then, fifty years ago, a different type of voice answered my report. This other guy spoke in a cold and calculating manner, ruthless and completely devoid of any emotions. He was crisp and to the point. Almost militaristic. But also, there was another thing. See, unlike the first guy, this new guy could tell exactly what you were thinking and feeling just by listening to you speak. Whoever he was, he was a whole new beast. That human we talked with on the hologram acts and speaks like someone else; someone who is not in the information business, but uses the information is a means to an end. Trust me; I know these types. I've been around them enough."

"Well keep that in mind," Marcus said.

"So, why did this guy inform us about the Rachni?" Garrus asked. "Does anyone here think this might be real?"

"Jaina and I do," Marcus said into the comm.

"What makes you say that, Shepard?"

There was a pause.

"Remember that one time when Liara helped me with the Cipher and Beacon images by melding with me?" he asked.

"Right, you spoke of that," Tali spoke up. "That's how we found out that the relay monument is the Conduit, and that the other end leads to Ilos."

"And how do you get to Ilos?" Marcus asked pointedly.

"Through Mu relay," the quarian replied readly. "But that the relay was lost after a supernova, and that the only ones who knew its path trajectory were the…" she trailed off as realization sunk in.

"Rachni," Garrus finished for her.

"Holy shit!" Ashley gasped, grabbing her head. "Is this for real?"

"Saren searching for the Mu relay?" Marcus asked rhetorically. "Saren being a major Binary Helix shareholder? Rachni somehow appearing on Peak 15 which is a Binary Helix research lab, to which Benezia went? This sounds like too much of a coincidence to be fake, Chief."

"But where the hell did the Binary Helix find rachni?" Kaidan asked in disbelief. "Aren't they supposed to be extinct? And how are they even supposed to extract the Mu relay information from the rachni in the first place? Aren't they supposed to be mindless animals?"

"Are you stupid?" Wrex barked. "If rachni were mindless animals, do you think they'd be able to build interstellar vessels and wage war on the entire Council?"

"Well we'll find out what they're like soon enough," Jaina said firmly. "We're closing in to the Peak 15. ETA: three minutes. Keep your senses sharp, people!"

"There," Marcus said as the facility's tall silhouette pierced the blizzard barrier.

"Armatures, dead ahead," Tali warned from where she monitored the radar.

"I guess we now know what was in those crates," Liara commented.

"You know the drill, people," Marcus called, and the two Scorpions moved into a parallel formation dive.

The three armatures set up into a firing position, launching a salvo of heavy plasma rounds. Scorpions' superior hover drive drove the assault vehicles to bank and dodge the volleys harmlessly. The twin machineguns mounted on their sides on the front spun and sent down a hail of heavy rounds into the armatures, defeating their barriers and armor in seconds.

"Bring us down," Marcus commanded, and the vehicles slid to a stop in front of the main garage entrance to the facility.

"Initiate defense protocol on the Scorpions and follow me," he said, and then stepped out of the assault vehicle.

"Damn, it's cold," Jaina murmured as she stepped up right next to him.

"We'll have time to warm up later," he spoke silently back, sporting a smirk on his lips. She kicked his ankle. He chuckled.

The rest of the team walked up to them, weapons drawn and ready.

"Remember, people," Marcus spoke up. "We already know we're dealing with the geth, but on the off chance we encounter rachni, the explosive rounds in our Striker rifles should dispatch them pretty easily."

"And I have a flamethrower," Wrex said, patting it on his belt. "It's said that bugs pop open like _koran_ once exposed to it. I'm eager to see it!"

They took strategic positions around the broad entrance at what was already a well-practiced routine for the eight combatants – Wrex and Marcus up front, Jaina, Garrus and Ash behind, and with biotics at the rear. Tali was to the side, directing her omni-tool through a quick and efficient door hack.

The doors opened with a quick whir and hiss of servos, opening up to the main garage expanse. The seven geth units, alerted to their presence by the armatures outside, were already waiting for them at strategic positioning. So were the four enemy krogan.

Marcus dove to the side, firing short bursts at the hidden geth, as Wrex sprayed a broad wave of suppressive fire from his Devastator at the three krogan. Jaina and Garrus slipped through under the support fire and set their snipers at the geth units that were pummeling Wrex's biotically-enhanced combo of shields and barriers.

The battlemaster ignored the geth. He sensed other threat.

"Shepard!" he hollered. "Get those krogan!"

Marcus switched his targets as the last of their group swung through the entrance and into the nearby cover, spraying the first charging krogan with a long, sustained burst from his modified Mattock, giving Wrex time to switch the devastator for the claymore.

The first krogan dropped, his body a smoking, burning ruin from explosive rounds as Marcus pulled back the action-lever, unclipping the heat sink module and slamming on a new one.

The second krogan bought a point-blank claymore shot to the chest from underneath the shield layer, the shockwave destroying both of his hearts.

The third and fourth krogan dropped from where they had been lifted up by Liara and Kaidan, and were met by violent combined fire from the team, ending their lives in short order.

The geth, though consisting of two hoppers, two juggernauts, and three soldiers, were quickly flanked, and set upon from all sides by a superior team.

The echoes in the garage finally ceased.

"What the hell were krogan doing here?" Marcus asked, angry at a completely surprising situation.

"Mercenaries would be the most likely answer," Jaina offered her two cents. "Wrex, correct me if I'm wrong, but from what you've been telling us, krogan have no problem taking turian money, right?"

"Money is money," Wrex said grimly, "but any sane krogan could _smell_ there's something wrong with Saren and avoid him like the plague, I tell you that. Remember what I told you about how l saw Saren that one time? On that ship? Any krogan could sense that he was rotten to the core."

Garrus walked around the corpses, his gaze scrutinizing them carefully.

"From what info I've been given on the krogan, they tend to stick to merc groups," he said. "Preferably krogan-only merc groups. And these four do seem to wear the same armor type."

"Do you recognize their affiliation by their armor, Wrex?" Marcus asked.

Wrex shook his head.

"No. This ain't gang armor; it's just some generic run-of-the-mill krogan armor." He suddenly frowned, leaning in. "And it's identical between all four. That's not right; krogan like to adorn and brand their armor." The big battlemaster shook his head, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Something's not right here. Pop their helms; I need to smell them."

Garrus kneeled down and popped open the closest dead krogan's helm. They saw a smooth scaly skin, and where headplate crown should have been, a gravelly, unformed surface could be seen. Wrex shook his head sadly.

"Bah, that one was just a pup," he said. "The runt was probably barely out of his Rite of Adulthood."

"What's that on his eyebrow?" Garrus asked, pointing to a sequence of symbols etched into the dead krogan's skin with mechanical precision.

"That's a serial code," Tali said in wonder. "Turians use that kind of code in their industry."

"Hey, guys, this krogan was young as well," Ashley called from where she had removed the other dead krogan's helmet.

"This one as well," Kaidan called from the third one.

Wrex's head turned to the sides in quick succession, and then he took a closer look at one of the other krogan. His eyes widened, and he stepped up to him.

"I'm not a good judge of young krogan's faces, but those two look very similar," Liara noted. "They even share the mark on their eyebrow."

"They're not similar," Wrex said, his aged and wizened voice gaining a rare note of incredulity. "Those two are _identical_!"

He spun, moving with uncanny swiftness, and checked the remaining two corpses, while Tali scanned them.

"They're the same!" he shouted, his voice laced with upset.

"Krogan quadruplets?" Jaina asked. "How rare is that?"

"Since the genophage?" Wrex growled angrily. "Impossible!"

"Keelah," Tali gasped as she read out her omni-tool. "These are not brothers! These are clones! They're of identical DNA!"

Wrex stepped up to her quickly and read out the omni-tool results. His eyes were wide, his nostrils were flaring. He was beyond upset.

The scarred warrior turned away from her slowly and took a slow, grim step.

"Shepard," he said, his voice even deeper and more gravelly than usual. "I want to know what is going on here."

"You and me both," Marcus murmured grimly.

"I think I know," Jaina said, making everyone turn toward her. "Remember what we found out from your informant, Liara? Of rumors how Saren was buying cloning equipment?"

There was a moment of pause as it sunk in.

"By the goddess," the girl gasped. "He's cloning a krogan army!"

Wrex's mouth spread into an angry sneer.

"Young and untrained," he growled deeply, like boulders breaking off from the mountainside. "Charging moronically into battle – just like these four here – driven by their baser krogan instincts, stupid and blind," He trailed off, and there was a moment of silence as he looked down at the corpses. "I wonder if they could even talk."

"I have a feeling Benezia would know what is going on," Garrus said. "If she really is Saren's second in command, she knows both about these krogan, and as to what is going on in this facility."

"True and true," Marcus said, taking charge. "Move out, people, staggered line, you know the drill."

The group moved out of the garage up the stairs to the security station, noticing the turrets turned the wrong way. Tali scanned them immediately.

"That's the turrets' default position!" she said grimly. "Were scientists held as prisoners here?"

"If you want to look at it that way," Garrus spoke, "I've seen some high-profile companies being very paranoid about what got out of their research facilities."

"And would shoot you if you tried smuggling anything out?" Ashley asked incredulously.

"Welcome to the corporate world, Chief," Marcus said.

They piled up into the elevator and climbed onto the second floor. What greeted them was a cold, snow and ice filled lobby, all of the windows smashed, and the furniture crushed or overturned. There were traces of frozen blood, and zero bodies.

"What happened here?" Kaidan wondered out loud.

"Scan for life signs," Marcus ordered.

The omni-tools went up, sweeping the room in all directions on maximum sensitivity.

"Nothing," Garrus reported. "Strange. Would have expected more signs of battle or body remains if we already saw geth down there."

"Yes, but see those?" Jaina nodded toward bloody trails. "Bodies were dragged through here. And they're going toward a dead end, right next to that wall."

"Not dead end," Tali said. "My sensors tell me that's where the vents are."

"Shit," Kaidan cursed.

"Wrex?" Ashley called to the intent-looking krogan. "Any wisdom in how to fight huge bugs?"

He hummed, nodding.

"If it really is rachni…" he trailed off. "I've heard plenty of stories. Even saw some vid logs. Rachni are fast. They have a pair of extremely strong tentacles hovering above them that they use as whip-like weapons, but that's not their primary weapon. Their primary weapons are bone spikes that they can shoot from their mouths."

"We have barriers for that," Kaidan said.

Wrex shook his head. "Not good enough. The spikes are laden with acid. The barrier will stop it, but it will burst and spray acid around which will go right through. The amount of acid is small, and most armors are strengthened against acidic effects, but the damage is cumulative over a long time. That's why they needed krogan back during the Rachni wars. Asari and salarians needed those armors to fight rachni on their toxic planet, and once the acid ate them away, they needed to retreat. We didn't have to; our skin and lungs were resilient. As for our team now, well, our armors are top-quality. I don't think any of them are in danger of failing unless we literally bathe in the stuff."

Marcus nodded.

"Everyone, check your seals," he said. "Full hardsuit mode. No piece of skin uncovered."

A quick shuffle as the people did a quick check of their suits when Tali's radar suddenly went off.

"I'm detecting something!" she called out sharply, her sensor suite more advanced than the rest. "It's coming from what appears to be a ventilation system. Over there."

"Oh boy," Ashley groaned. "That doesn't sound good."

"Arm up," Marcus called, diverting the team toward the incoming bio signs.

The team went absolutely silent, and soon enough it came:

The sounds of shuffling, skids, and rapid taps across the surface. Like someone slapping a wooden switch against metal. A sound that bored straight into that primeval node in the human brain that screamed that bugs were about to burrow their eggs beneath your skin.

A sudden slam, then another, and a large floor panel in the corner of the room flew up into the air.

The huge insectoid creature literally slid out with smooth and and strikingly quick grace as its myriad of legs danced up and down as the creature took a position in front of the vent. Two other creatures surged right on its heels, flanking it and lowering their heads threateningly at the Normandy team before emitting a huge shriek with their vibrating mandibles.

 _Nope!_ Marcus thought.

"Fire!" he roared and depressed the trigger.

The devastating barrage tore into the glistening chitin, the explosive rounds tearing it apart and sending the creatures staggering back in deathly throes.

Just as the bodies were about to fall back into the vent, another mass of dark chitin surged forth from it, a set of tentacles whipping through the dead bodies of its falling comrades and sending them flying as additional, enraged rachni shuffled out of the vent.

They were met with controlled bursts of explosive rounds that quickly and effortlessly tore through them, one at a time, tearing limbs and spraying ichor, but the creatures almost seemed oblivious to pain.

Even as they were falling, the rachni troopers were spreading their mandibles wide, discharging serrated spikes with a pneumatic hiss toward the Normandy team members. Most flew wide, but the few that impacted the barriers did so with surprising force, their large weight lending them a concussive effect that ordinary bullets simply did not have.

Just as the last rachni soldier dropped dead, though, a swarm of small, cat-sized green bugs surged out of the vent and rushed straight toward the team.

Wrex instantly dropped his Devastator machine gun, grabbed his flamethrower pistol and aimed toward the onslaught of bugs.

A second later, the green river of insects was suddenly engulfed in a massive conflagration that covered the entire half of the room.

The air was filled with the sound of shrieking popcorns, followed by Wrex charging through the dissipating flames straight toward the vents. Shoving his weapon into the opening, he pulled the trigger once more, and the corridors were instantly filled with a blazing inferno, followed by the myriad of distant shrieks and cracking carpace. One by one, the additional vent hatches along the walls burst open with blazing fires, and for a moment it seemed like the ancient gates of hell were finally opening, the shrieks of tormented souls heralding the apocalypse.

The fuel canister finally ran empty, and Wrex quickly backed away, inserting a fresh one.

"Clear," he rumbled after a moment.

As the relative silence returned to the premises, Wrex moved with slow, deliberate steps, until he stood over the carcasses.

"So, it's true," he said with ominous finality. "These are the rachni. I know. Any krogan would know."

"Spirits," Garrus muttered, shaking his head. "To think they're back. How the hellis that possible?"

"That's what we need to find out," Marcus said. "Tali, can you hack anything remotely from here? We need the layout of this place at the very least."

"Way ahead of you, Shepard," the quarian said as she was working her omni-tool, quickly transferring the relevant data to them all. "I've managed to hook up to the emergency system. It appears that the main processor core that controls the facility's VI is down. Without it, I cannot access the more specific areas around the labs, but the damage shouldn't be irreparable. The fact that I am getting this notification is proof enough of that."

"Do you have the core's location?" he asked.

Their interface maps beeped with the update.

"Alright," the Spectre said. "Let's move out! And watch both above and below you! Use what the horror vids have taught us!"

"Horror vids?" Garrus asked as they moved down the hallway. "Is that when a monster or monsters are out to kill some humans, and the whole vid is about them running and dying?"

"Pretty much," Jaina chirped merrily.

Garrus shook his head. "I thought that was just an urban legend about human customs," he said.

"Humans _want_ to be afraid?" Wrex asked.

"Facing one's fears," Ashley said, shrugging. "It builds character. And it makes us ready for something like this."

"Hmm," Wrex rumbled. "Makes sense."

The team quickly reached the room where mainframe core was located, just past the main hall that led to various sections of the facility.

"Secure the area," Marcus directed them, the team fanning out to secure all avenues of approach. "Tali, get in there and do your magic."

"On it," the girl called, diving into the core's housing like a cat into a box.

"The rest of you, set up and prepare to defend this location if this turns out to take too long. Be prepared to protect her from attacks from both above and –"

A sounding startup sequence of the cooling units and electronic system notifications echoed throughout the chamber, the illumination climbing back to optimal levels. A VI hologram in the shape of a woman appeared from a projector near Jaina.

" _It seems you're trying to restore this facility_ ," the VI said. " _Would you like assistance?_ "

Marcus raised his eyebrows and looked down only to see Tali exiting the processor core.

"Easy!" she chirped, hopping on her toes.

"Good work," he said, inclining his head, and then walked up to the VI hologram.

"VI, what do you respond to?"

" _This system is set up to respond to the name "Mira"_ ," the VI replied. _"May I ask who you are?"_

Marcus raised his omni-tool and sent out his Spectre credentials toward the system.

" _Spectre credentials confirmed,_ " the VI said with a nod. _"Access to all of the systems is granted to you, Commander Shepard. Please note that privileged company information is not accessible unless you were to provide a corporate executive code._ "

"Tali?" he spoke, turning to her. "How long will it take for you to provide us with those codes?"

Tali was happily working away on her omni-tool already, the multiple screens passing through he mid-air with barely any time for him to notice the written commands. Though somewhat skilled in the basic operating system and VI administrative access through his N7 training, Marcus was fascinated with the sheer depth of Tali's access of Mira's subroutines as she activated program after program designed to help her hack into the VI's subsystems.

"Here we go!" Tali said, lifting up a set of codes from the VI's deep hardcoded segments.

"Whoah, hang on a minute!" Kaidan spoke up, raising his hands. "I'm not some big-ass hacker or anything, but I have done my fair share. How the hell did you manage to work through it so fast? It would have taken hours for some of the best guys I know!"

"Pre-programed apps that target specific subroutines," Tali shrugged, raising her omni-tool for emphasis.

"You had routines that could target a VI like this?" Garrus asked. "What's the chance?"

"I hack geth mid-combat," Tali said dryly, without any amusement. "I have routines for _all_ of the VI's in existence!"

"Ah," was all Garrus said.

Marcus shared an amused look with Jaina, and then spoke to Mira:

"Code input: alpha-335-001-757-9."

" _Executive code accepted,_ " Mira said. " _All privileged information is now available._ "

The team stepped closer, listening attentively as to what was happening.

"Tell me how did the rachni end up on this facility?" Marcus demanded.

" _Date: March 5_ _th_ _, 2182. Location: System 54B-331, Styx Theta cluster. An exploration team found a derelict ship of unknown design drifting at an orbit of approximately 12 AU's of the star. Close inspection of the ship over the next three days determined it was of Rachni origin. A single living egg was found and brought to this facility on March 15_ _th_ _, 2182._

" _Executive order number 11-3: The rachni egg is to be allowed to hatch and then cloned for the purposes of researching the rachni._

" _Executve order number 11-4: If viable, the cloned specimens are to be used in behavior training and control tests._

" _Date: June 3_ _rd_ _, 2182. Location: Rift Station. A rachni queen hatches from the egg. It is placed in confinement. The tests report a surprising amount of intelligence and immunity to behavioral training._

" _Date: December 26_ _th_ _, 2182: The queen reaches a mature state. She begins laying eggs using a versatile genetic material pool from various male and female rachni that was stored in her body. Tests indicate that this is how rachni procreate and maintain genetic diversity and resilience."_

" _Date: December 27_ _th_ _, 2182: All currently and any subsequently laid eggs are removed and grown in isolation._

" _Executive order number 12-1: All hatched rachni are to be subjected to high levels of behavior training and control._

" _Date: March 18_ _th_ _, 2183: Hatched rachni soldiers do not show any positive reaction to behavior training. Pavlov effect appears to be nonfunctioning. Control is only achieved through herding methods that involve direct application of pain. Further tests are required._

" _Marchs 22_ _nd_ _; eight days ago: Stage One alert issued at Hot Labs. Rachni soldiers broke free from the Laboratory Pod Gamma. Emergency protocols implemented. Stage Two alert issued at Hot Labs. Isolation Tube breached. Tram: shutdown. Landlines disconnected. Stage Three alert issued locally; rachni in tram tunnels. Station shutdown and evacuation initiated. Code Omega sent."_

Mira fell silent. The team members looked at each other grimly. Jaina spoke up, directing the question to the VI:

"How much time passed from Stage One to Stage Three?"

" _Approximately Twenty-two minutes,_ " the VI replied.

"Jesus Christ," Kaidan muttered. "That was a floodgate. How many rachni were there?"

" _One hundred and seven soldiers and three hundred and twenty-three worker rachni have been logged before the alert."_

"Matriarch Benezia should have arrived at Peak 15," Jaina said. "Do you have her location?"

" _Matriarch Benezia has left for the Rift Station labs using the Passenger Tram."_

Jaina shared a look with Marcus, and then they looked at Mira.

"How the hell could Benezia use the Passenger Tram if you said that everything's been shut down and landlines disconnected?"

" _Matriarch Benezia's personal escort had temporarily activated the generator core and landlines, enabling them to reach the Labs. A squad of eight unknown types of autonomous mechs was left to shut down the generator again after she had reached the Labs."_

"More geth then," Jaina said, looking at Marcus. He nodded.

"What is the current location of the ge… the mech units?" he asked.

" _All of the mech units are located at the generator._ "

"No further queries," he said, and then turned to his team, raising his fingers. "Two teams: one will go to the generator core and deal with the geth; I'll lead. Jaina, you take two people and reconnect the landlines."

"Done," she said. "Wrex and Liara on me; I'll need biotics and krogan if we run up to rachni."

"My pleasure," Wrex rumbled.

"Three biotics against the rachni and the mixed tech-soldier team against the geth?" Liara mused as the teams walked back into the access lobby. She smirked. "This should be pretty quick, then."

"Amen to that, sister," Ashley quipped as the teams separated and went to their own directions.

..

* * *

 _ *****_ _ **Condition 3**_ _– Based on US Navy practice (Conditions 1 through 5). To put it simply, Condition 1 is a call for full battle stations (general quarters), and Condition 5 is peacetime conditions when the ship is docked. Condition 3 is used in wartime, and it is a condition in which half of ship's weapons are active and manned at all times._

.

 _ **Thanks for reading!**_

 _ **Remember, all feedback is welcome. I like to hear it from you: what is it that you liked about my story. What is it that you don't like about my story? It encourages me to keep writing. It encourages me to become better.**_


	31. Chapter 31 - Noveria - Pt II

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _A little bit later update than I planned. Things are always quite a bit hectic in real life at the end of a year. Also, this chapter is a little long because there was no proper way to split it into two._

 _Now, without any further ado, here's an early little New Year's gift from me…_

* * *

 _ **Chapter posted on 30.12.2017.**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes, Intrigue, Militaristic…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 30 – Noveria – Pt II**

.

It was cold, Jaina thought. Despite them being inside the hallways of the Peak 15 facility, it was frigidly cold – the kind that pinched the skin and blocked out blood – but she didn't let it touch her. Next to her, Wrex couldn't care less. He might as well have been humming a tune. Liara was alert and solid. Strange what adrenalin and focus can do when you're being threatened by 300-pound insects popping out of the vents.

None ambushed them thus far; didn't mean there wouldn't be any at all.

And as expected, as soon the three of them filed out into the open space where the landline power cables were located, they saw a group of rachni soldiers and workers scuttling about in the cold.

The sound of doors opening up made all the bugs turn their big heads toward the intruders. With a screech, the three rachni soldiers braced for attack, lowering their heads and spreading their mandibles wide as they primed for discharge of their acidic bone spikes from their mouths.

"Barrier!" Liara called out, lunging and slamming down her biotics with a burst of snow around her.

The bone spikes broke against the broad sphere, the acid clouds puffing harmlessly through the air.

"Lift and detonate – Wrex!" Jaina called out as she channeled her own biotics and engulfed the three warriors in her own reducing field, followed by a massive, whoomping detonation as Wrex sent his Warp into the hovering group.

The torn and ravaged rachni went flying to the sides in a tangle of limbs, impacting structural pillars and walls with concussive force.

"Workers!" Liara warned at the incoming swarm of small green beetles. "Singularity!" she called out, going through a broad, sweeping motion that launched the gravity sphere.

"Warping!" Jaina followed through.

The blue mass detonated, sending the bugs flying in all directions and slamming against the walls.

Switching to SMG's, Liara and Jaina made quick work of the small crippled bugs as Wrex charged the screeching rachni soldier that was trying to get back up. With a body blow, he slammed the beast against the wall, then crushed its scull with a mighty swing of its shotgun, then aimed at the second surviving rachni that was trying to get up. The last soldier's pitiful wails were silenced with a mighty blast of his claymore.

The grizzled battlemaster took a mighty inhale of frosty air, letting the chill surge through his blood with renewing quality, then exhaling with a rumble in relish.

"Ahhh," he sighed. "To think that I get the chance to do something my grandfather only told me stories of."

"Relish it while you can," Jaina said, approaching the first disconnected landline cable. "By the time we're done, there won't be any left."

She crouched, lifting the first cable and popping into its slot, securing the safeties on it. She was met by Wrex's laughter, his gravelly voice crunching the air.

"Shame," he said.

"Poetic for there to be a krogan right as the rachni are attempting to rise again, though, don't you think?" Liara spoke to Wrex with a knowing smile and hands on her hips.

Wrex snorted.

"Yeah, that's what they'd tell ya," he said. "The Council would give me a medal and a slap on the back, and the rest of the krogan would be conveniently forgotten. Hell, I'm almost tempted to let the damn bugs loose on the galaxy! A perfect excuse to force the Council to sponsor a cure for the genophage. Except the same thing would happen again – as soon as the rachni are gone, the krogan would restart the Rebellions and – BOOM! – another genophage. Or worse!"

"You're not convinced there could be a diplomatic solution if that happened?" Liara ventured.

"No, there wouldn't," Jaina stated instead with surety. "Galactic policy and diplomacy revolve around exploiting other people. That's what the politics is. If the rachni were to be released onto the galaxy, the krogan would be tricked and used again by the Council, and human politicians would have done the same. The krogan would have been relegated to reservations, just like Tuchanka is now, to be kept on a leash for the next time they'd need to be used."

Liara sent her a petulant look. "Wow. Thanks for crushing my childish dreams," she said dryly, then sighed. "Well… can't say I don't see it happening. Two or three months ago, I'd have been shocked to hear you say it, but now I understand everything you're speaking of – the hypocrisy, the self-service – I understand. Goddess, do I understand…"

"That's what will make you stronger, kid," Wrex said stepping up after he finished with another landline. "You need to know how the world works." He then looked at Jaina from the side with one of his eyes. "That's what I like about you and your man, Jaina Shepard. You two are not forged from the same scrap metal the rest of the Galaxy is; you're made of real steel. You see things other people do not, and find solutions, which other people cannot. Wish there were more krogan like you… no, actually, scratch that; they'd be a hard competition. Hehehe."

Jaina snorted in amusement.

"Alright, I guess we're done here," she said looking around, and then tapped her comms. "Marcus, the landlines are secure. What's your status?"

" _We've dispatched the geth here without much problem_ ," his voice came through. " _Tali, Kaidan, and Garrus are going through a generator startup sequence. We should be ready in –"_

A sudden, loud whoosh and a hum that spread throughout the entire facility interrupted him. The landlines sparkled with high-voltage electricity, and the emergency illumination was replaced by real lighting.

" _Right about now,_ " Marcus finished. " _Let's meet up at the main hall and proceed toward the tram._ "

"Roger that," Jaina said, and motioned for Wrex and Liara to follow her.

"Hey, Femshep," Wrex called.

" _Femshep_?" Jaina demanded with amusement.

"Well I gotta differentiate you somehow," Wrex argued to an amused exchange between Jaina and Liara. He continued, "I said that I've noticed you see things that other people do not. I stand by it. So indulge me on this question: in your opinion, what is the greatest obstacle to krogan becoming strong as a species?"

Jaina raised an eyebrow at him, and her silence for a few moments. Then,

"The greatest problem of krogan is the fact that you're too strong," she said. "You're too strong compared to other species and you've allowed yourselves to think that that's all it takes to solve all your problems when, obviously, that's not the case. It's too easy to kill even a krogan. Grab a grenade launcher, see what happens. Yet it's as if all of your kind seems to purposefully ignore it. It's like a collective blindness, and you're not even aware of it."

Wrex rumbled grimly. "You're right. That's what we've always been like."

"No, you haven't," she said. "Ten thousand years ago, krogan were prey on Tuchanka, yet you thrived. Your strength wasn't enough back then. You needed to be careful, calculated, smart, to think outside the box and watch each-other's backs, to cooperate against nature. Now, it's completely opposite. _Who's tougher, am I tougher, I know better, I can do better, I want to fight you and kill you because that proves I'm stronger_ – that's not what civilizations work. Civilization works by cooperation. You, though, only look for enemies. When you can't find them outside, you turn against each other. It's like there's some destructive fire burning inside of you, driving you blind to everything else."

She seemed to realize something, pausing in thought.

"So what you're saying is that we need enemies to thrive," Wrex prompted.

"No… I think it's actually something else entirely," she said. She looked at him from the side. "Wrex, tell me something: how many times had you fallen into a blood rage?"

He looked back at her with his one red eye.

"Not once in my entire life," he said after a moment, returning his eyes to the path ahead. "I never bothered to have myself checked, but I'm pretty sure that I don't have the gene that's responsible for that inside me. Especially considering that everyone else in the family had it."

She nodded. "That must be why you, personally, have succeeded more than the other krogan. You're a mutant, Wrex. In a good way. And that's why I'm pretty sure that the blood rage gene is also the one that's responsible for the collective blindness." She shrugged with one shoulder. "Not that I'm a geneticist… But I'd stake my life on it! Your nuclear war was just an error; humans too were this close to it several times, so it shouldn't have been the basis on which to judge your destructive tendencies… It was only after that that krogan began to… loose themselves. I think the post-nuclear wasteland has mutated you in the wrong way, not only giving you blood rage, but also something more sinister; something that nobody realized or bothered to check."

Wrex's eye that regarded her was wide in the beginnings of a stark realization.

"So you're saying that there might be something else other than blood rage within us and that eliminating that gene would help?" he wondered.

"Long term, yes," she said.

"And short-term?"

"More fucking."

Wrex and Liara both did a double-take, stopping dead in their tracks.

"You heard me," Jaina said in all seriousness. "Krogan need to fuck more. Much more. It'd bleed out all that negative energy. Make more babies too. Right now, krogan fuck only if invited into female camps after they've proven themselves through some special event they came on top of, right? That's what – once every few weeks on average? No wonder you want to kill everything."

Wrex was looking at her wide-eyed and incredulous. Then,

"Hehe," it escaped his throat. Then more. "Hehehe, HAHAHAHAHAHA!" He bellowed happily. "Shit, Shepard. Should've realized it sooner; it makes perfect sense. You and your man are a perfect example of bleeding all that excess energy."

He turned serious.

"Krogan will never do all that on their own, and you know it," he said as they resumed their walk.

"I hear a certain krogan will _make_ them do it," Jaina laid it on with a smirk.

"Hah. You hear right," Wrex rumbled. "I was already sure of what I needed to do. When you helped me retrieve my armor, my path was set. Now, though… forget rachni. Cloned krogan? And Reapers? Our future is on the precipice. Now it's more important than ever."

"Good to know we'll have friends taking our side," she commented.

They reached the main hall just about then, and just about at the same moment as the doors on the opposite side opened up to let the other group in.

"Talk about good timing," Jaina smirked.

"And let's not waste any of it," he said, motioning around the chamber. "Form a perimeter! Defensive circle at the center; we need to review the data. Tali – let's correlate what you've found."

"Got it!" Tali said as the team formed up defensively around her, Marcus, and Jaina, their back turned to each other.

"Now that the power's back up, I've reestablished sensors throughout the facility," Tali said, activating her omni-tool and sending the tactical overlay to everyone's HUDs. "I've got here the overlay of the entire facility with a real-time update. Turns out that most of the sensors are intact; we've got most of the vids and sensor locators throughout the facility!"

"Seems the rachni aren't smart enough to know they're a threat," Jaina said. "Their positions?"

"Here," Tali brought it up.

A number of red dots appeared on the sensors, many of them in the vents, some of them close by, but the majority in one huge chamber on the other side of the tram.

"The rest of you getting it?" Marcus asked. A number of affirmatives went around. "Keep an eye on those rachni dots closest to us. Tali, what's that chamber with the greatest concentration of rachni?" he asked, pointing at the mass of red dots.

"Hot labs."

"Wasn't that where Mira said the infestation began?" Garrus asked.

"It was," Marcus said. "Any security cams over there?"

"Hang on," Tali said, inputting the commands in her omni-tool's console. "There are several cameras; I'll try them one at a time… here we go."

What they saw was a scene of carnage.

The camera they picked showed them the destroyed lab offices. The destroyed furniture was all over the place. Blood was painting the walls. Blue blood, red blood, purple asari blood too, the latter splattered straight across the elevator entrance. Only one mangled turian body could be seen up against the wall, and no other bodies were there; rachni obviously didn't like dextro food.

"Where are all the rachni?" Jaina asked in wonder.

"I don't kn… wait, what's that?" Marcus pointed.

"Is that a man?" Jaina said in wonder. "He's alive!"

"How the hell is that possible? What's he doing?" Marcus wondered.

"He seems to be working on a terminal," Tali said. "I can't see what he's trying to do; the angle's wrong." She tried a few commands, then shook her head. "That terminal is isolated; I can't access it."

"We can see he's injured, though," Jaina said. "See there? A bloody patch on his side."

"But where are the rachni?" Wrex barked gruffly.

"There seem to be several chambers in the lab," Tali said. "Let me check another camera… Ah!"

"Jesus," Kaidan muttered from where he was looking at the feed at the corner of his helm's HUD. "There must be a hundred of them in there alone!"

The dark insectoid mass was apparently asleep all across the huge laboratory. Corpses could be seen strewn around between them, a couple of the active insects tearing into the unrecognizable flesh.

"Turn it off," Marcus said grimly. Tali didn't need to be told twice. "What I'm interested to know is how the hell is that man still alive. He's only two walls away from the insects."

"Whoever he is, he must have some method of warding them away," Jaina said. "No way he was able to survive that long in the hot labs on his own. That means we need to get our hands on whatever it is."

"Agreed, but we also need to know where Benezia is," Marcus said, then nodded at Tali. "Anything?"

"The sensors are picking up other survivors, but I can't find Benezia," Tali said. "I'm running all CCTV feeds through facial recognition software, but it's not pinging any positives. There is, however, one part of the facility where the feeds had been disabled. Here, the Secure Labs."

"A million bucks says Benezia's there," Jaina said.

"No bet," he retorted. "What about those other survivors?"

"Here and here," Tali said, pointing out two locations. One showed a bunch of huddled, frightened scientists, the other a barricade with a dozen ERSC personnel standing vigilant over it.

"So now we know the situation," Marcus said. "Show us the pathway that gets us there."

"Yes, Commander," she said, then began marking out the sections of the map. "This is where we are, the concourse of the facility's operations center. In order to get to Benezia, we need to get to the tram, through this hallway here. When we get out of the station on the opposite end, there is a concourse that leads to three directions: Hot Labs, Secure Labs, and the recreation section where the survivors are currently huddled."

"Which now leaves the question of whether it'd be prudent to go directly to Benezia in the Secure Labs or check with the scientists if anyone had seen Benezia and can give us any functional intel," Jaina said.

"And if Benezia has planted someone among the civilians?" Marcus asked.

"If they have comms to her, they could warn her, have her entrench," Kaidan noted.

"Or force her hand and have her come to us," Ashley added.

Marcus shook his head. "It doesn't matter; every scenario has pros and cons, and we've spent months polishing our team. Whatever the situation brings, we'll handle it. Now, one step at a time. First, we get to the other side. Then, we assess and adapt. Clear?"

" _Clear,_ " echoed across the team.

"Heads-up," Garrus called from where he monitored the tactical sensor layout of the surrounding area. "We got rachni incoming. Two hostiles. Sending the tactical outline to you…"

The team scrambled just as the pounding began to echo throughout the chamber as if someone was walking over thin metal panels of the air ducts, making them flex and bang.

A panel not far from them banged up, and a rachni soldier hopped out of it with uncanny speed, only to meet a hailstorm of rounds. Another rachni followed, throwing its dead compatriots body out of the way as it charged the group mindlessly, screeching, spitting spikes and spraying acid.

It too met the same fate before its four legs made three steps.

"They're not so tough!" Ashley chirped in mild realization when the last bug dropped dead.

"Exactly the problem," Wrex growled suspiciously. "Rachni aren't mindless beasts to charge blindly like this."

"Lulling us to drop our guard in order to ambush us?" Kaidan asked incredulously.

Wrex shook his head. "I don't think so… these rachni… they radiate some strange vibes. Something's strange."

"Then don't let your guard down," Jaina commanded.

"We move in a standard disposition down the corridors," Marcus added. "You know the drill."

They advanced, soft fighters in the middle, with strong one at the ends and Wrex at the spearhead.

"Commander, over here," Kaidan called from up front, pointing up to a security station guarding a corridor and separated from it with bullet-proof glass. A group of several rachni was shuffling about like a swarm of cockroaches, trying to break their way through the door.

"They're locked in tight," Garrus observed. "Those doors and walls are bullet proof."

"Why do they bother?" Ashley asked with a frown. "Their other friends didn't seem to have any problems shuffling through vents and walls."

Wrex was watching the bug aliens intently.

"That's because they lack coordination," he noticed. "Something's very wrong. Rachni are controlled by their queens, and the coordination they can bring to bear far surpasses that of any standard army." He shook his head. "But these rachni are completely crazed. Feral. Stupid. They act on instinct. You can practically smell it off of them."

Suddenly, a large gout of flame burst through the corridor where the rachni were, burning them to ashes in seconds. The people turned toward the security station's control consoles, where Tali was finishing up.

"I saved us some trouble," she shrugged.

Marcus and Jaina shared an amused look.

"Let's move out," he called.

Their track to the tram was uninterrupted, even after they entered the tram station's waiting area, filled with chairs and benches. They entered the wagon, settling around at strategic locations around, ready to defend against any hostile incursion, be it rachni or geth.

The tram moved quickly through the tunnel dug through the glacier and had reached the Rift Station in a matter of minutes. No rachni awaited them as they emptied out of the wagon readily aiming down the sights of their weapons.

"There," Garrus called, pointing out two exits.

Marcus approached one and tapped the button, being greeted with a grinding beep.

"This one's exit only," he said with a shake of his head. "Physical lock from the other side; can't be hacked."

"That one over there are the Hot Labs," Jaina motioned with her chin at the sign to the doors on the opposite side. "And those next to them lead to where the civvies are holed up."

"The Hot Labs doors are locked," Garrus mused, then approached and tapped the button that would summon the elevator, and an interface with a short message popped up:

" _Locked by the order of Captain J. Ventralis._ "

There were a few heartbeats of silence.

"If these doors are locked, then that means that guy we saw on the security cams is locked down there with the bugs," Jaina almost whispered.

"This Ventralis guy might not have known there were any survivors," Marcus said slowly. "And people do rash things when faced with imminent death. Let's check with those security guards we saw on the cams. Ventralis might be the one leading them. Come on."

The team was quick on their feet as they filed down the hallway with their weapons ready. No rachni crossed the short trek, and they quickly reached a set of crude barricades made of crates and overturned desks. On the other side, a group of security personnel was huddling behind, aiming down the sights toward Marcus's group.

"Friendlies incoming!" Marcus called out.

There was a murmur on the other side, followed by a man's call:

"Stand down everyone!"

Marcus motioned for his team to follow him into the chamber. As he walked, he took a careful look at the people that waited for them behind the barricades. Universal looks of relief were painted on their faces, both the few humans and turians that were there. But, there was something else there as well. Strange facial movements. Eyes wild, frantic and searching, facial twitches and jerks. He recognized all the hallmarks of prolonged stim-pack overuse right then and there.

Their apparent leader stepped up and spoke with obvious relief:

"I don't know who you are or what you're doing here, but I sure as hell am glad to see some friendly faces. The name's Ventralis, Captain of the Rift Station security force; what's left of it anyway."

"Commander Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance of the Citadel," Marcus said. "What's the situation here?"

"You're that new Spectre? Jeez," Ventralis muttered. "I heard some whispers about it; few news reaches us here. Didn't think the Council would send their men to take care of things here on a private world, but I ain't looking at a heavily-armed horse's mouth!"

"The situation, Captain," Marcus repeated pointedly.

"Right. Right. They broke out of the Labs last week," he said, his voice on edge and his posture stiff. "All of the scientists that worked there are dead. Only one guy managed to get out of there alive, and he ain't all himself anymore. They overran our security station within minutes before we even realized what was going on. I managed to rally some of my men and barricade ourselves here, protecting the survivors. We've been on the guard ever since. I used my remote access to lock down the elevator to the Labs, so they hadn't been attacking us as much since, but they still come at completely irregular patterns, with irregular numbers… we've barely slept at all."

"So, it is only you and the survivors here?" Jaina asked.

"No, the Board of Directors sent an asari matriarch with her personal team to clean up the mess, named Benezia," he said. Marcus noticed a split second of hesitation before he spoke again. "She's been at the Hot Labs since yesterday along with her asari commandos and some weird-ass mechs. She said that we need to remain there until she solves the problem."

"Hot Labs?" Ashley croaked incredulously, then immediately shut her mouth.

She didn't need to speak out what was on everyone's mind; they had seen the state of the Hot Labs on CCTV after they had reestablished power throughout the facility. There were no asari or geth in there. There was not enough purple blood to account for twenty asari commandos if they were dead, and there was definitely no wrecked geth either. Ventralis was lying.

"So Benezia went there with commandos and what you thought were mechs?" Jaina asked. "No krogan mercenaries by any chance?"

"No, there were no krogan with her," Ventralis said. "Like I said, only asari and those strange mechs."

"Mechs," Ashley muttered with disdain. "Those are geth soldiers, stupid! Honestly, it's been two months since Eden Prime! How can people still be so ignorant even here?!"

"Now hold on just one damn minute!" he said angrily, "it's the company policy to keep this place in the dark when it comes to both outgoing and incoming communication, and that includes the news. I barely even heard of the Eden Prime attack and a human becoming a Spectre, and that was through some back channels! No pictures whatsoever. How the hell was I supposed to know those were Geth?"

"I'm always amazed by what people are willing to put themselves through for money," Garrus commented.

"Hey," Ventralis barked, "if you've seen the fat check I get for this job, you'd sing a different tune."

"Really?" Wrex spoke up, his deep and powerful voice bringing Ventralis short. "The last I checked, credits cannot buy you another life once you're dead, which is exactly how you're going to end up if you keep that tone."

Ventralis ground his teeth in frustration. Marcus spoke up:

"This asari that was sent by the Board of Directors, is an accomplice in the Eden Prime terrorist attack. Are you sure she's still at the Hot Labs?"

"She hasn't come back here," the captain replied in a rushed, defensive manner. "And if you haven't seen her, then – yeah, she's still there!"

Marcus shared a look with Jaina, sharing another wordless conversation and a silent understanding. Ventralis was on Benezia's payroll and he didn't even know what he was doing.

"What do you know about these creatures, anyway?" Jaina played dumb.

"They're fast, vicious, and there's a shitload of them," was his quick answer. It was not rehearsed. "I have no idea what kind of twisted genetic experiment they are, except that they came from the Hot Labs."

"Alright, then, give us the key code to the Hot Labs elevator," Jaina said. "We'll get down there and settle this."

"Hey, are you sure?" he pretended to care. "Nobody got out of there alive, except Han Olar!"

Marcus just thrust out his omni-tool insistently. Ventralis shrugged and activated his omni-tool transferring the unlock sequence without any further prompt. Marcus motioned his team to move back to where they came from.

"Stay here," he said as he walked backwards, not letting Ventralis out of his sight. "We'll be back shortly."

The doors closed in front of his face and he turned back to his people as they advanced down the hall.

"I cannot believe that guy has just sent us to die," Ashley growled.

"Calm yourself," Marcus ordered. "The CCTV showed there's a survivor down there; if I was a betting man, I'd stake my life on the fact that he has something big we can use."

"How else could he have survived there all alone," Wrex rumbled.

"We're here," Jaina called from the front as she sent the unlock code to the Hot Labs elevator doors.

They piled into the empty elevator and promptly descended, all eight sets of weapons ready and trailed toward the exit. Instead, when the doors opened, all they saw was what they expected to see: a single, large, and completely wrecked lab office, with one human man sitting in front of a single functioning terminal.

The man was completely oblivious to them, working intently, almost frantically.

Marcus motioned the team with two fingers, and they fanned out of the elevator, securing key lanes of attack as he approached the unknown man that sat near the desk.

As he did, a strange, unpleasant static began filling his helmet earphones, inaudible, almost like an ultrasound.

"Hey!" Marcus called.

The man jerked away from the console he worked on, turning and looking around frantically, noticing the new incomers for the first time. His face was pale, drawn, but as soon as he realized who he was seeing, it was replaced by a look of absolute relief.

"Ah! Ungh!" he moaned, clutching his side. "Oh, thank god! Thank god! You're here!" he said with a thick Slavic accent.

"Who are you?" Marcus demanded as he approached. "How are you alive?"

"Ah, yes," the man nodded, coherence only slowly beginning to return to him. "My name is Yaroslev Tartakovski. I am a researcher here."

He gulped, his throat dry. Marcus reached him just then and removed his small water can from his hip, planting it to man's lips.

"Easy," he said. "Little sips."

"Thank you," Tartakovski said as Liara stepped up and scanned him.

"No internal organ damage, just a deep gash, but no big blood vessels ruptured," the asari said, and Marcus offered him a deeper sip, while Liara applied a shot of medigel next to his wound. Tartakovski sighed in relief.

"Saved by my layer of fat, no doubt," Yaroslev joked.

"Are you the only one here?" Jaina asked.

"Yes, I'm the only one alive," the scientist said. "Nobody else made it out. Maybe Han Olar did; I haven't seen them drag his body away. I've been trying to get out of here for days, but the elevator has been locked from the other side, and I'm not a computer expert to hack it. I was running out of food and water. If you didn't show up…"

"Are you sure nobody else came here before us?" Marcus demanded. "We were told that an asari matriarch came here a day ago with an escort of commandos."

Yaroslev looked up at him with surprise evident on his face.

"Whoever told you that lied to you," he said. "There was no way that they didn't know what was happening here; they have sent you to your death!"

"We figured that much already," Garrus shrugged. "Never hurts to double-check."

"We'll have a nice talk with Ventralis once we're out," Marcus promised coolly. "Tell me, are you one of the people who worked on resurrecting the rachni?"

The scientist took a moment to process what Marcus had just said. The flame seemed to go out of him.

"Ah. So, you know."

"I know."

There was a moment of pause before Marcus spoke again:

"I need to know how you survived here."

Tartakovski licked his lips and raised his omni-tool pointing to it.

"Rachni are sensitive to certain sound frequencies. That is what we discovered while we studied them. Certain sound frequencies cause discomfort to them, while others cause an outright pain. It was the only way to control them in any way. Once they broke free, I realized that this might be my only chance to save myself. I activated the sound on the omni-tool, and they kept away from me. Their swarm ignored me while it chased the others down."

"That must be the odd barely-audible noise that's filling my ears," Garrus muttered, the others nodding their assent.

"Doctor, I need to know what happened here," Marcus said at last.

Tartakovski took a deep breath, and spoke:

"I assume you know the story of how we got the rachni?"

Marcus nodded.

"I don't know how they broke free," Tartakovski said. "It's just one of those things that happened. Like in a horror movie. Someone must have made a misstep during security checks."

"Why the hell did you allow so many of them to hatch, for Spirit's sake?" Garrus asked. "I can understand two or three, but over a _hudred_?"

Tartakovski sighed.

"Binary Helix planned to clone the rachni," he said. "They wanted to mass produce them, to create an army to be sold to the highest bidder. And they wanted it now."

"Motherfucker!" Kaidan cursed empathically. Tartakovsky continued.

"Yes, indeed. I know it sounds hollow now, but none of us scientists were exactly in a position to argue. They first thought they found an ordinary egg, but it turned out to be a queen! They were happy for more genetic versatility. Rachni do not breed with ordinary male-female mating. The child queen is conceived from dozens of different genetic parents, and she carries all of the genetic material readily in her and is able to mutate it. After the queen laid eggs, they took her eggs away from Secure Facility to Hot Labs, here, to be hatched. They thought they could control them easily that way."

"Sounds like it that didn't work as planned," Liara said dryly.

"No, it most certainly did not," Tartakovsky replied empathically. "This was exactly the _wrong_ thing to do. My colleague and I realized that rachni are in fact just like ants or bees. Without a queen, they do not develop properly. In fact, they do not develop at all! It is her mind that is biotically shaping theirs, even while they are growing in an egg. We placed a pair of eggs close to the queen for the sake of providing us with a working sample, and the grown rachni developed real sentience and intelligence! But these other rachni are completely berserk."

"So, if we leave these rachni as they were, they just keep rampaging," Jaina mused out loud. "If we bring the queen to them, then the queen just takes control and assaults us in a far more organized manner."

"Ah, no, none of that would happen!" Tartakovsky said empathically. "For one, bringing the queen won't bring these rachni under her control. Their minds weren't properly formed during maturation, and they simply cannot link to the queen. We tested this already by bringing the crazed specimens to the queen. It doesn't work. They are beyond saving. I do wish that queen could put them under her control; that would be the ideal solution."

The entire team's eyes widened.

"You're kidding!" Garrus croaked.

"No, I assure you I do not," Tartakovski said seriously.

"You mean to say the queen would _not_ attack us after she got her hands on an army?" Jaina asked skeptically.

"There's a good chance that she wouldn't," Tartakovski said, raising his eyebrows for emphasis.

"How can that be possible?" Liara demanded as she pinned Yaroslev with a glare. "The rachni are hailed as genocidal alien monsters. Are you saying everyone's been wrong two thousand years ago?"

"I do not know what happened two thousand years ago, but rachni are not beasts, miss," Yaroslev said. "They were an interstellar species. The queen's egg was found on a derelict rachni ship in a cryogenic suspension. It was obvious that they were very intelligent, and we wanted to establish communication with her. A cooperative queen would have been much better."

He sighed and swallowed, color now beginning to return to his face from the application of medigel.

"I was the lead scientist in the Secure Labs," he continued. "I was the one who worked with the queen the most. We were creating a breakthrough in creating a communication device. It was crude, and could only translate basic sentences, but it brought the point across. We had psychologists with us, and they tested the queen's intelligence and responses to a great extent. From that, we know that the queen's first instinct would be to flee to a safe location with whatever brood she could bring with her. If we were to give her passage, she would have just retreated. That is the first response of any sane organism. She wanted to be free, she wanted us to stop taking her children away from her and flee, but she did not want to go into an immediate, blind rampage."

"How can you be so sure?" Wrex growled. "Rachni are not beasts, you're right about that, but they're cunning. They might very well have used that intelligence to trick you."

Yaroslev smiled and spoke: "Ah, but you see, she couldn't lie! Rachni _cannot_ lie! They communicate by biotically influencing thoughts and transferring their own thoughts to another rachni. The queen calls it 'the song'. Me and my colleague, Lazlo, together with the psychologists, have had very solid indications that rachni couldn't lie because their communication functions by directly transferring thoughts! You cannot lie with your thoughts. The thoughts carry intent, and if the intent was to lie, it would be sensed immediately by the recipient."

"So this device you had worked as a lie detector?" Marcus asked.

"What? N-no, that's not… Listen, the device is an eezo resonance device, based off of a basic biotic amp. It picks up the biotic thought waves rachni send and translates the meaning. It is not like a normal conversation, so the translation is crude and generalized, but since it's directly sent from the queen's brain, it cannot be faked! Trust me!"

Marcus and Jaina looked at each other, and then shared a silent look with everyone else. A sense of important revelation swept them, and visage of intent focus was etched on everyone's face.

"So, you're saying this queen can be reasoned with?" Marcus asked.

"I do," he replied. "We did reason with her before! If nothing else, you might be able to negotiate with her."

Marcus frowned, the cogs in his head working intently.

"Alright," he nodded. "We'll try talking with the rachni queen first. If it doesn't work, we can always kill her later. Is the queen here?"

"Ah, no," Yaroslev replied. "This is only where the other rachni were brought to hatch. There's a lab, and a large hangar further down that corridor. That's where most of the rachni host is. They're leaving me alone here because of the ultrasound my omni-tool broadcasts."

"We know; we saw it on the security feeds," Jaina said, then looked at Marcus. "We still need to take care of those rachni."

"The neutron purge would be the best!" Tartakovski said eagerly. "It was installed here just in case of this happened. It will kill everything living in this lab, and the radiation will be minor further out. Pardon me for not activating it on my own, but I hoped to live through this. Here…"

He typed in a few commands on the terminal, and the security feed of the large hangar where rachni were popped up.

"This is them," he said. "There were one hundred and seven soldiers when they escaped, but fifty more had hatched since, and will keep doing so. Every few hours some of them would wander off through that vent hatch over there, probably to assault other areas of the facility. None return."

"We killed plenty of those that got out. Ventralis's men did too. We might not be able to get those few rachni that are already out in other areas of the facility, but this will certainly take care of the vast majority, and the remaining eggs."

"True," Yaroslev said, then took out his keycard. "This contains codes to initiate the purge. All we need to do is insert it in any terminal and set up the timer."

"Do it," Marcus said, and Tartakovski obeyed.

He inserted the keycard and tapped a few commands.

"There," he said. "I've set the timer for two minutes. All we need to do is press the execute button."

"Kaidan, Liara, help him to the elevator," Marcus said, and the two squadmates hustled to help Tartakovski.

The rest of the team retreated to the elevator, maintaining their strategic position and watching the surroundings warily. When they were all at the elevator doors, Marcus initiated the countdown and walked briskly back to the elevator entrance.

" _Warning! Neutron purge countdown initiated,_ " Mira's VI voice echoed throughout the facility. _"Two minutes to detonation._ "

The elevator doors closed behind Marcus, and it quickly to the upper level, then exiting the elevator and moving into the hall.

"Are we safe here?" Marcus asked Yaroslev.

"Ah. Yes, very," the man said, limping along slowly as he held onto Liara.

"We'll wait it out here, then, to know if something went wrong. Set up guarding positions there, there and there."

The team moved to obey, and then they all waited out the countdown sequence. Mira's voice warned them every thirty seconds of the time remaining, and then finally counted down from ten.

A muffled whizzing thud and a groan of material echoed throughout the facility. There was slight shaking, and then it all settled.

" _Neutron bombardment successful,_ " Mira's voice called over the facility's speakers. " _No remaining organic life signs detected in the Hot Labs_."

"What do we have on the facility scans?" Marcus asked.

"Less than a dozen or so signals remain throughout the vents," Tali said. "None close by."

"Then, let's go," Marcus called grimly into the ensuring silence. "We have a scheduled conversation with a certain captain of the security force."

"Damn straight," Wrex growled. "Sending _me_ to be killed by rachni, is he?"

Echoed by silent murmurs of assent from other squadmates, the team advanced back toward Ventralis's defense bottleneck, their disposition prepared to storm out of the confined space.

"Shoot first," Marcus ordered. "Ask questions later."

Ready callbacks of assent echoed through the hallway as the team prepped their weapons. The area around them began to shimmer blue from the charging biotic fields of all the crewmembers, ready to both defend and dish out death at any moment.

They reached the doors and pressed the opening hologram.

"Fire, fire!" they heard Ventralis's voice from in front of them, just before they were peppered with sustained assault rifle fire.

Wasting no second, Marcus initiated a biotic charge. Time seemed to slow for a split second as reality seemed to contort around him, and then he slammed into a makeshift barrier with superior might, dislodging both it and men hiding behind with a violent push. A biotic nova ensued, launching everyone and everything with explosive force.

Before anyone on the opposite side knew what had happened, another crewmember's biotic push slammed against another barricade, sending enemies flying through the air to be picked off by a floating singularity and spun like rag dolls before a warp field detonated the thing with a shaking quake.

Wrex barreled into the dazed and confused soldiers with a roar, crushing both bones and armor and sending explosive shotgun rounds down their heads and chests at point blank range.

A few more detonations and pistol and rifle shots from Marcus's team, and all twelve ERSC personnel members were dead. Ventralis, though, by some lucky stroke still alive, was lying against a wall, panting, and completely dazed. He sported a gash was on the side of his head where he had struck against something hard when the biotics had kicked him away. It was evident his ribs were broken too.

Marcus stood above him, kicking the man's rifle away.

"You tried to set us up," he said icily. "I don't need to explain how I don't appreciate that."

"I was ordered to," he said, panting. "It was that asari matriarch… Benezia. She… she came with her commandos and those mechs… the geth… and she said that if anyone came here after her, to send them down to the Hot Labs… _'let the rachni deal with them'_ she said. The bitch."

"Did she know it would be me that would be coming after her?" Marcus asked.

Ventralis exhaled tiredly.

"I don't know," he whined, shaking his head heavily. "She just said 'anyone'. Look I get a fat paycheck for this, and I'd like to keep this job. I wasn't gonna ask any questions."

"Where is she now?"

"At the Secure Lab. That's where she truly went yesterday."

Marcus looked questioningly at Yaroslev, who had by then limped out of the corridor into the open space and approached them.

"That's the lab where the queen is being held," the Russian said. "It is past the common lounge area, and down the secure area. There should be a lot of drone turrets there that fire automatically on anyone who does not broadcast a clearance signal."

"The drones won't be a problem," Marcus stated with a shake of his head.

"Look, I've told you everything I know," Ventralis said. "I'm not a threat anymore right? And I'm risking being sued and fired if the Board of Directors finds out how much I helped you. Can I go now?"

Marcus looked down at the man in a complete, incredulous surprise, and then pulled out a gun and shot him in the head.

The lifeless body slumped to the floor, the wall to the side of him painted with blood and pieces of brain mass.

Tartakovski had winced at the shot, but only sighed tiredly as he looked at the lifeless body.

"Let's move," Marcus called. "We'll check the survivors, if there truly are any in the common area, and then head out toward the Secure Labs. Keep your guard up."

The team walked through the corridor and entered the spacious common area that was intended for the working personnel to rest on their brakes. Marcus immediately saw plenty of civilians of various species there. They were sitting as a large group on the floor. A single asari was standing next to the group, using a scared woman as a living shield as she pointed a gun at other people, with four geth soldiers providing support.

"That's far enough, Shepard!" the asari spoke up smugly. "Don't even try it! I can sense you're charging biotics, but ask yourself whether your hand can be faster casting a biotic throw than my finger would pulling the trigger. And my geth friends here are more than capable of holding you at bay while I kill off all of these sniveling nerds."

She was right, Marcus thought as he glared at her gun grimly. Her bullet really would be faster than anyone's arm launching biotics. That was the tradeoff of the mnemonics: you could launch stronger blasts, but you needed to literally go through the motions. Only matriarchs were known to be powerful enough to channel biotics with their mind alone, using no physical motions. Matriarchs… and certain Earth gang rats who needed it for pickpocketing.

He focused, the sensations rolling through his head as his eezo nodules synchronized. The felt up the asari's gun with his mind, the imperceptible fields caressing its internal mechanism. There. His mind wrenched at the part, hard.

Oblivious, the asari kept up with her imperious speech:

"So here's what you're going to do: you're all going to drop your weapons – all of your weapons, and slide them this way. Otherwise, I start killing people. The fresh new Spectre doesn't want innocent deaths so soon on his record, now does he?"

"The new Spectre doesn't give a fuck," he stated, then glanced back at his team. "Kill this cunt."

The asari was first, growling as she pulled the trigger at a hostage. The trigger clicked, and her pistol exploded to splinters, taking her entire hand off with it and leaving her screaming.

Gunfire surged across the small space, tearing into shields and armor on both sides.

And it was over, just like that.

Outnumbered two-to-one, the geth were quickly taken out but not before exerting their token resistance. Kaidan and Ashley, whose duty made them jumped in front of everyone, had gotten their shields overwhelmed.

Marcus approached and give Ashley a once-over where she clutched at her stomach only to see it was all good. The few geth rounds had embedded themselves deep into her armor, knocking her air out, but the plating fulfilled its purpose. Kaidan's armor, in turn, was only nicked. Glancing over at the hostages, proved all of them still alive and unharmed, if dazed and literally pissing themselves.

That only left one loose end.

Marcus stepped up to the asari who sat down on the floor in shock, cradling her ruined stump, and discharged an explosive round into her head, splattering it into a purple goo.

The dust settled, and the hostages began releasing sounds of relief.

"What the hell happened when her gun exploded?" Ashley asked.

"I warped its mechanism with my biotics," Marcus said. "Don't try this at home, kids, unless you know both how to channel without mnemonics and exactly which internal component to target."

"No arguments here," Kaidan said readily.

Suddenly they heard Tartakovski's unmistakable voice:

"Olar! You're alive!"

The volus he spoke to looked up and nodded.

"Tartakovski," he said levelly, his breathing system hissing. "I killed her."

Yaroslev was brought up short. "Killed who?" he asked in confusion.

"Zhonmua," Olar replied evenly, monotonously as if he was preparing breakfast. "We were going to lunch when the alarms went off. I ran into the elevator, and I closed the doors. She banged on the window once, and then they sliced her to pieces. Her head came apart like a melon. I closed the doors. I killed her."

Tartakovski was silent for a moment.

"If you didn't you'd be dead now," he said, his accent sounding even thicker.

"True," the volus replied.

Marcus approached the group of civilian scientists and technicians that huddled together and spoke,

"This asari woman I just killed wore a scientist's uniform. Who was she?"

An elderly man replied, "She was Doctor Alestia Iallis. She worked here for almost a month now. We never thought she was anything but an ordinary scientist!"

"And the geth?"

"They came from there," he pointed down another corridor.

"The Secure Labs," Tartakovsky said. "The primary entrance."

"It was Benezia who sent them," Olar said simply. "Both the geth and Alestia, as well as Ventralis's men. She wanted to cover up everything here. She ordered them to kill us all."

"Why would they do this?" A female scientist cried out.

"She works for Spectre Saren Arterius," Olar stated simply. "He wanted to breed the rachni as an army."

" _Former_ Spectre," Jaina clarified. "We're here to bring Benezia down. You said that was the primary entrance to the Secure Labs. Are there others?"

"There is one more," Olar said slowly. "through the maintenance area, over there. As you can see, both paths converge here."

Marcus examined the paths and then turned to Tali.

"Tali, disable the doors that lead through the maintenance area. Seal them physically if possible."

"Sure," she nodded and moved to work on the doors, activating her orb drones that started working on welding the doors down.

"As for the survivors, you will head out to the tram and wait for us there. The rachni threat was contained; we've activated a neutron purge. There are a few stragglers in the vents, but we've reactivated the facility's sensors and security systems, so you can avoid them easily; all you need to do is hook up your omnitools to it. But just in case, pick up the security team's weapons, and get into the tram and wait for us there. It should protect you should there be any rachni remaining."

Sounds of relief spread through the crowd, and people began carefully shuffling out of the area toward the tram, with Tartakovski joining them.

Tali joined them just then, finishing up her work in short order.

"It's done," she said. "Not even a group of biotics could tear down those doors."

Marcus nodded, and then walked up to Liara, touching her shoulder and motioning her with his head to a few paces off. He took off his helmet for the first time since they reached Peak 15, his eyes scrutinizing her carefully. He nodded at her with his chin.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

"Solid," she stated.

Interesting choice of words, he thought. It fit, he noticed. Her gaze was just as such. Firm and clear. Solid. He took a slow breath, pointing to the doors they'd be passing through any minute.

"I'm asking because your mother's behind those doors," he said.

Liara looked somber for a moment, turning her gaze toward the doors and looking beyond them.

With his helm off, he could sense it in her. Her aura was radiating, and it was firm. So incredibly firm. He could sense her logical mind was working up excuses by the dozen – that it was her mother, that blood is thicker than water – but they were pale. She didn't feel them. Compared to her aura, they were nothing but a buzz in the background. Her aura was – solid.

She looked at him as she thought of what to say. Then, she smirked at him.

"Don't worry," she said. "I won't let her hurt you."

He huffed a lopsided chuckle.

"That so, T'Soni?"

She smirked back, then her gaze turned deadly serious.

" _That so_ ," she stated firmly.

Marcus felt a twitch of excitement in his veins. Right there, the way she said it, the way her shaded frown and voice deepened, firm and scary at the same time, she reminded him of the only other woman that ever truly caught his eye. He wanted to pin her against the wall and ravage her right then and there.

He resisted the urge to lick his lips like a wolf, holding her gaze instead, his icy blue eyes penetrating and her cobalt blues open and welcoming to his search. He was satisfied with what he saw. Her gaze the same as Jaina's.

A corner of his mouth curled upward slightly. He nodded at her. He knew her mind was in the right place. He could feel it. That meant he could bring all of his focus on the real enemy, now.

He replaced his helmet, and called out, "Let's roll!"

The eight people walked down the main corridor toward the Secure Lab, disabling the few automated turrets and drones that were in their way.

"Wrex at the front," Marcus called. "Pump up the biotic barriers; you'll be soaking in the first shots. Liara, prep a sphere barrier. Have it ready at the twitch of your finger; I want it slamming down on top of us the instant the shit comes dropping down! Garrus, I want an overloading EMP in their midst the moment it happens! Kaidan! You're up front next to me. Barrier up; prep a throw. Jaina, prep a warp; Kaidan, _that's_ what your throw is targeting. Tali! You're interference. Harass them with EMPs, hacking, drones – whatever you got; Liara, you too – disrupt them with your biotics after the first blows are thrown. Nothing fancy, just sufficient to keep them off-balance. Wrex and I will take the brunt. Objections…? Good."

The team rearranged with quick efficiency, reaching the main entrance into the Secure Labs and fanning out in a strategic disposition as they passed through.

Their sensor suits suddenly got overwhelmed with static and jamming. They could use their eyes well enough as they approached, though. A large group of hostiles was positioned on and around a large central platform that stood in front of a large horizontal cylindrical tank. A large rachni was shuffling through the tank. The queen.

Two whole squadrons could be seen waiting for them, eight asari commandos and seven geth – of which there were no less than two Primes and two Juggernauts, along with accompanying drones that hovered around. All of them were positioned behind cover and ready, but none of them were still firing. And in the center of them all, standing in front of that cylindrical tank was a lone female figure in a long dark dress with her back turned toward them. Benezia.

"Commander Shepard," the woman's unnaturally cold and monotonous voice echoed loudly across the great laboratory. "You are proving to be a great hindrance to Saren's plans. I was not expecting you to find out about this facility, or my presence here. That proves that you are exceptionally resourceful. That also proves that Saren is right when he thinks you are a great threat to him."

Marcus remained silent.

The woman turned around, bringing them face to face with for the first time. It was the same woman they had all seen on the briefing pictures and vids, but there was something off about her. Her face under her headdress was stony, her eyes seemed dead, listless, a mirror of her eerie tone of voice.

She walked a few steps toward them, Marcus's keen tactical eye noticing slits down the sides of her long skirt, the commando-style pants with medium-heeled boots peeking out from underneath, and heavy pistols strapped to the outside of her thighs.

"You cannot defeat Saren," Benezia continued. "You cannot defeat Sovereign. And it doesn't matter who you bring into the fight," she added, looking pointedly at Liara. "You cannot sway me by bringing my daughter here. I have seen the truth of Saren's words. I have witnessed the power of the Reapers. And once the Conduit is found, the seal on their irresistible, immeasurable power will be broken."

Marcus shrugged.

"Okay," he said and depressed the secondary trigger.

A concussive shot blasted out of the lower bore of his rifle, barreling straight into Benezia. The matriarch's hands went up, a barrier instantly flashing to life, and the round slamming into it with force. Marcus rolled to the side and into the nearby cover, launching another concussive shot, covering his team as they dove for cover.

And then all hell broke loose.

The scintillating fire from no less than thirty weapons from both sides exploded across the expanse of the laboratory. Metallic walls rang out under ricochets, glass objects shattered in spectacular bursts, crates cracked under punishment as concussive shots, EMPs and tech bursts filled the area.

Biotics flared, falling like heavy thumps everywhere, biotic combos thundering like artillery strikes, and a massive field descending down where biotics dueled their sheer strength against strength, trying to overpower one another.

Five times Marcus's shields fell, and all five times he ignored it, staying that one second longer out of cover to provide sustained burst into that one enemy while the edges of his vision darkened. Applying medigel, waiting just long enough to regenerate his shields and boost them with barriers, he charged out again, activating his adrenalin implants, and blasting everything he had on anything he saw.

The enemies were more powerful than most he ever fought. Their weapons were high-grade, expensive commando tech, modded to the highest grade, firing heavy rounds that took heavy toll even on his improved shields and armor. The geth Primes, resilient as ever, squared off against Wrex in a standup fight, strength-for-strength, bullet-for-bullet.

But, no matter how good their weapons were, no matter the fact that there were twice as many of them in total, Benezia's forces lacked _the spark_. Geth were just synthetics, locked in their logic. Commandos were like Benezia, cold and empty inside, driven mad by the Sovereign's whisper. Their spark, that desire for life and desire to win – was gone. They were that one fraction of the second too slow. That much was enough.

The geth soldiers and drones fell first, overloaded by consecutive EMP's and taken down with but a few good shots. Then, two of asari commandos died, courtesy of Garrus's and Jaina's expert sniping, their heads ripped like a melon by the heavy rounds from the modified snipers. The first Prime fell to Wrex's devastator machinegun, the indomitable battlemaster ignoring all of the weapons fire and sustained wounds as he and his machinegun roared in unison. The second Prime fell to Marcus's explosive-concussive shot, his chest plate caving and then bursting a giant hole.

The geth Juggernauts were dropped in quick succession by semi-automatic sniper fire, the heavy rounds defeating their shields and armor, leaving no geth and only four asari commandoes – two more being felled by a combined use of biotics from Liara and Kaidan, something the opposite team seemed to lack.

"Get ready!" Marcus called out, and then biotically charged the position of the two closer asari, destroying their cover and launching a nova with his fist slamming into the floor. The asari, forced to block the powerful biotic blow, were left completely open to concentrated fire from Shepard's team, the multiple explosive rounds defeating their barriers and shields and tearing the light armor to shreds.

Only three enemies were left, too well hidden behind the rear covered position: two commandos, and Benezia herself.

And then, a dual pistol shot echoed, and two asari bodies slumped out of the opposite sides of the cover.

Marcus raised his fist, halting his looked warily toward the last cover, and then a pair of hands bearing pistols pointed skyward rose slowly up from the cover.

Benezia stood up slowly and stepped out of the cover, keeping her hands up for a moment longer, before she released the grip of the weapons, both pistols dropping down onto the floor.

Bruised and battered, Marcus's team slowly fanned out of their cover to surround her, watching her warily. Marcus spared a look to the sides to see limping movements and medigel injections. It was a hard fight, but everyone was standing. Limping, maybe, but their movements were sure.

His eyes returned to their nemesis.

Benezia's eyes were closed, head slightly sagged down, and her expression calm as she just stood there, her pant-clad legs a pace apart and out of her dress slits. She exhaled slowly, as if waking from a meditation, and looked straight at Marcus.

"Commander Shepard, you must listen to me," she said, her voice bearing new intensity, and a piercing focus reflecting in her eyes. "There is not a lot of time. I don't have a lot of time."

Liara tilted her head in realization, frowning. "… Mother," she said.

"I am sorry, Liara, but the woman I used to be does not exist anymore," she said simply, then returned her gaze to Marcus and Jaina. "It's because of Saren's ship, the Sovereign. It is a vessel unlike any other in this Galaxy. It is a Reaper, a single sentient machine whose construction was based around impossibly advanced and unknown technology, but one of the things I know it is capable of is, plain and simply, mind control. This is what I fell victim to. All of us that had spent time in it have become warped by its influence, to obey it unquestioningly."

"And right now?" Jaina demanded, not taking her aim off of her.

"Right now, I'm fighting against it, but I won't be able to do it for long. I had partitioned a part of my mind to protect it once I realized what was happening, but it is still too late for me. I need you to succeed in stopping Saren, Commander, and I want to give you everything I can in these few short minutes that I have. Please, believe me on this!"

"I'll be the judge of that," Marcus said, promptly unclasping his gauntlet and stepping up to Benezia.

He reached out with his bare hand and touched the side of the matriarch's face.

Images flashed in his head, terrible images, memories of her time on the Sovereign. The whispers in the dark, in the back of her mind, the terrifying pressure and oppressive sensations she felt whilst on that ship, the confusion, doubt, and terror. The realization what the ship itself was doing to her, how it was twisting her mind, the realization it was a living entity. The struggle she went through to preserve and lock out a part of her mind away from the monster in the hope she could somehow find a way to escape. The deeds she was forced to do by Saren; by Sovereign; by _the Reaper_.

Marcus reeled back from the onslaught, growling and spitting onto the floor.

"Fuck!" He cursed, then glared at Benezia as he stepped back. "How the hell are you even alive right now? I've never felt anything so…" he shook his head in disgust.

Benezia was looking at him with wide eyes.

"You saw it all!" she stated with realization. "That can only mean that you have unlocked the full potential of the Cipher. You see what Protheans see. You have tools at your disposal that Saren does not; that he hasn't and won't ever develop. This… this changes the game plan beyond what I expected!"

"What are you talking about?" Jaina demanded.

"What I'm talking about is this whole… charade," she said as she began typing on her omni-tool, working to unlock all access. "The Reapers… the –" she hissed in pain, grabbing the side of her head. "I don't have much time. Listen. The Reapers are out there; the ancient synthetic species that destroyed the Protheans. The Sovereign's mind control has indoctrinated Saren to obey them, and all he wants to bring about their return without even realizing that he is the puppet. The problem is, there is no simple solution to stopping them. Even if you kill Saren, the Reapers will still be out there. There will be no 'closing the gates' and hoping the monsters stay away. They'll be getting here sooner or later. And the Protheans knew this when they were losing the War 50000 years ago! They have attempted to prepare the lesser, un-evolved species to fight the Reapers once they came back. Asari, turians, humans – the Protheans left each of us with caches of technology in hopes that our advancement could be accelerated. They left data about the Reapers, and I'm not talking about fragments; they left _clear, specific data_. Hoards of it. But they didn't realize that we wouldn't advance sufficiently and quickly enough to unlock the full potential of the caches they left us, and they didn't realize that the Reapers would leave a vanguard to fuel the flames of hatred, keeping us off-balance so that we never do. Don't you realize it yet? That vanguard was Sovereign, and he was operating behind the scenes long before any one of us was even born!"

"How?!" Wrex barked.

"By tapping our networks, observing us, and then manipulating the individuals that crossed its path," Benezia said. "Saren was only the most recent one and the most influential, the one that had the sufficient access that Sovereign needed. That's why Sovereign made its move now. Do you know where Saren found Sovereign? He found it at the very edge of the Perseus Veil. And that's not all. According to the data that Saren has managed to somehow reconstruct, he has deduced that the last time Sovereign was active was 300 years ago, and deeper inside the Perseus veil! Before that, he was active over the course of the Krogan Rebellions. Before that, during the Rachni Wars. That is _too much_ of a coincidence."

"Assuming the data's accurate, she's right; it is too much to be a coincidence," Garrus said sideways to Marcus.

"She's not lying," Marcus said, sensing Benezia's aura with his ability.

"Are you telling me that a single machine is responsible for millions of deaths and every single major conflict for the past two thousand years?" Wrex asked angrily. "What an insult!"

"At least you're not saying how outrageous it sounds," Jaina said.

"Oh, I'm way past 'outrageous'," Wrex growled. "Rogue Spectre, resurrected rachni, cloned krogan, giant death machines? Hah! This has become my everyday routine!"

"I have no proof of any of this," Benezia said. "But I need to set you up on your path. I need to give you everything!"

She grunted, touching her temple with a shaking hand.

"And those cashes of technology the Protheans left?" Jaina prompted? "Are they beacons?"

"No, they are more than mere beacons," Benezia said, breathing, composing her mental fortitude. "The Protheans have left a massive computer array on Thessia," she said with clenched teeth as she fought off head pain. "It still functions. And it is hidden underneath the statue of the Goddess Athame, in her temple in Armali, Thessia."

There was a moment of silence.

"How did I not know of that?" Liara demanded slowly, her voice shaky.

"Because this is not something that is freely given to just about anyone, Little Wing," Benezia ground out. "Only the highest echelons of the rulling matriarchs are privy to it. And from whatever meager data we have managed to extract from it, we suspect that the Protheans have left similar caches among all other species."

She groaned, pressing on her temple as she turned to Shepard.

"The Protheans knew about the Reapers and tried to warn us," she said. "But they failed. They expected we'd be able to read the data, but we couldn't. Whatever data we manage to scry is jumbled. Only the strongest matriarchs could even attempt it safely. But you're different, Commander. The fact that you read me so easily tells me that your Cipher has granted you powers equal that of the Protheans' natural ability. You, of all people, would be able to glean its secrets, and that means that as a Spectre, you _must_ push to gain access to the Athame beacon! It holds so much that we do not know…"

"And Saren?" Marcus demanded. "Where does he fit into this? The Sovereign? The Conduit?"

"All I know is that the Protheans did something to stop the Reapers from utilizing their usual means of returning to the galaxy," she said, then swallowed. There was a strain in her voice now, and a frown of concentration marred her face. "I know that whatever it is is on the Citadel, and the Conduit is the key to getting there. Is it a portal? A passage? I don't know. What I do know is that he needs to get to the lost Prothean world of Ilos to get it, and that the only passage is through the lost Mu relay. That is why I was here. The rachni queens inherit the memories of their mothers. They transcribe it through their genes. I have extracted the data from her mind; I was not gentle." She raised her omni-tool. "It is all on my omni-tool. I have unlocked it, but I had already sent the data to Saren before you arrived."

"So what is his next step?" Jaina asked.

"He – Agh!" she growled, her teeth barred and head shooting to the side and grabbing her temple. When she returned to face Marcus, a trickle of blood was flowing through her nose.

Liara made an almost involuntary step toward her when Benezia raised a halting arm.

"This needs to be done," she said coldly, her breath coming in at labors as shivers began to rake her body. "Saren plans to get to the Citadel via Ilos, but he doesn't want to do it _just_ yet. He needs an army. He's breeding it on Virmire… Krogan clones… Implanted with combat knowledge… Nothing but tools to be discarded. He won't get to Ilos until he's sure he has a force that is unstoppable for what he's planning or until his hand is forced. The rachni queen… her children were supposed to be ours… Gah! No! Not ours! _His_. Sovereigns… Another horde of cannon fodder."

"And what will Sovereign do while they're making their move to the Citadel?" Marcus demanded.

Benezia shook her head violently.

"Don't know. Attacking maybe… outside… in space –"

There was a convulsion that ripped through her, and she dropped down to her knees and sat on the floor, holding herself up against it with her arms. She was shaking hard.

"I can't… fight it off much longer," she gasped, speaking haltingly. She clenched her teeth in an act of blind defiance to what Sovereign's compulsion was doing to her. "Comm… Commander, y-you must… gather the g-galaaxy… you… you. _Must. Force. Them!_ "

She gasped and panted, Liara crouching down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder, her face pale and disbelieving as she watched what her mother was going through.

"We…" Liara whispered. "We can save her perhaps. Shiala… she was cured of Sovereign's influence with the help of the Thorian. It could help her…"

"Shiala… sh… she d-didn't spend… time… close t-to central core of… S-Sovereign's body," Benezia choked out as purple blood dribbled out from her nose, eyes, and ears down onto the metal floor before her. "It's… too late. I w-won't s-survive this strain on my brain, and… I don't need to."

"Mother…" Liara whispered, trailing off.

Strange peace suddenly engulfed Benezia as shakes and tremors subsided.

"You've… you've always made me proud, Little Wing," she almost whispered, looking up at her daughter, purple blood pouring out of her calm eyes that held a spark of her old self. "A-Always. But you hae… have work to do… big work… Keep…"

A final powerful convulsion ripped through her, and she fell limp in Liara's hands, her dead eyes open and staring into nothing.

Utter silence filled the room. Nothing moved or breathed for seconds, not even the rachni queen in the glass tank.

Then, after a long moment, Liara began moving as if in a trance, feeling as though the slightest breeze could tip her over.

She laid her mother's body down onto the floor, placing the dead woman's hands over her chest and closing her eyes. The girl's eyes were wide, unblinking, her face pale and bearing the signs of shock. As she stood up, her body began shivering.

Jaina was there in a flash, pulling her in for a firm, tight hug. Liara's hand shot up around her almost on instinct. And then she began shaking. There were no tears, no sorrow, no pain. Just shock and powerful tremors wracking her body. She held on to Jaina like a lifeline. And Jaina was there. Whispering sweet nothings right into her ear and letting Liara's nose be filled with the familiar, comforting scent of her hair.

And they ceased. The tremors ceased like they were wiped away, and Liara's eyes returned to focus as she hugged back and breathed in deeply.

"Thank you," she said as she finally separated from Jaina. "I… don't know what came over me. I thought… I thought that I have left all the feelings for Benezia a long way in the past."

"Hell, girl," Ashley murmured from the side, laying a hand on Liara's shoulder, "You're only a mortal. But you're a soldier, alright."

Liara looked around to meet the supportive looks of her crewmates and nod back. Her eyes lingered a moment longer on Marcus's longing gaze, exchanging silent words of encouragement. He had to remain the leader. And it was more than alright.

"Thank you, all," Liara said softly.

"Good to see you're still with us," Garrus said, then turned his head toward the huge glass tank. "That just leaves one loose end left now."

The queen, as alien looking as any of the present species would feel, was just standing calmly at the center of the tank, her head occasionally tilting to one side or the other, quite insect-like. Marcus approached the tank, and the queen raised her head to look straight at him. There was a distinct sensation of there being a person behind those huge insectoid eyes. The queen then looked somewhere to the side, as if pointing.

" _Over here_ ," an electronically simulated voice called from off to the side.

Marcus turned his head and saw a hand-sized device with holographic control displays.

" _Here,_ " the device called again, its voice feminine in its basic form.

Marcus looked at the queen. The alien shifted on its feet.

" _Yes,"_ the device called. " _I speak through here._ "

Marcus walked up to the device and picked it up, turning and approaching the glass again, looking at the queen with judging intensity through every moment of it. He quickly set up the simple user interface, and spoke,

"Can you understand me?"

"Yes," the queen spoke back. "We are the rachni queen. We sing for those left behind, the ones who were Rachni once, before they succumbed to disease of song."

Marcus frowned. He did not like this one bit. Tartakovski had said that the device was crude and translated intent behind the word, and assigned the proper word based on that. But, this was more than crude. He could think of a hundred metaphoric meanings for a 'song', a hundred metaphoric meanings for 'desease', and a thousand others for 'desease of the song'. One wrong interpretation and everything would go to hell.

A soft touch landed on his shoulder.

"Hey," Jaina called softly, a gentle and knowing smile dancing in the corner of her lips. "Why don't you let me handle this?"

Marcus sighed, realizing he'd be overthinking this to death. He handed her the device, and Jaina stepped up to the glass barrier, locking her eyes with the queen's.

"You say you sing for the one's left behind," she said. "Does that mean the rachni of two thousand years ago?"

The device translated instantly, but there were a few moments in which the queen took time to analyze the meaning.

"Yes," the alien said. "They died. I remain. I sing for them."

Jaina thought on it.

"The song of the rachni is communication. Isn't it?"

"Yes," the queen replied almost immediately. "Your songs flat. Colorless. They do not color the air. They can be… not-song. You can sing one thing, but the real song can be another. The not-song. We understand the not-song, but we cannot sing it."

Jaina hummed, sharing a look with Marcus. What queen spoke of now matched what Tartakovski had said earlier. She quickly updated the translator VI with a few choice meanings, and continued:

"Why do you say that rachni had a 'disease of song' two thousand years ago?

The queen took a moment to formulate her words.

"They… desired… foul," the translator struggled. "They raged against those clean. They demand foulness, spread foulness. Their songs were sick… oily shadows. Their sick songs were… not natural… wrong to life, peace. Something forced wrong songs onto them, and they changed. There was a voice that came from the sky. _It_ changing them. One after another, the voices were hushed. Then, the voice forced them to resonate with its sour yellow note. They spread foul songs. Then, they raged against… asari… salarians… krogan."

Jaina turned to look at the back of her team.

"If that does not sound like mind control, then I'm a klinx," Garrus spoke darkly.

Wrex gave him a measuring sideways look.

"You already look like a klinx to me," the burly krogan muttered.

"Piss off."

"Shhhh!" Ashley shushed them angrily, waving her forefinger over her barred teeth.

Marcus had stepped up next to Jaina.

"How were you not affected by it?" he asked.

"My mother heard foul songs," the queen said. "She saw how far the disease spread. We heard her cry. She knew… she could not escape. She sent me into emptiness between… stars… hoping I would live and sing the life song for the rachni to others; to asari, to salarians, to krogan."

"Are you telling us that Rachni never wanted war?" Jaina asked.

"We want to spread the songs of peace," the queen said. "We want to spread the song of rachni again. True rachni only wish for… harmony… with other singers of songs, no matter how song might be different."

"Why do I get the feeling that convincing the Council, let alone the rest of the Galaxy is going to be a bit trickier than that?" Garrus asked sarcastically.

"You're right, it will be," Liara suddenly spoke up, walking up to Marcus and placing her hand on his shoulder. She looked calm, collected, and determined. She radiated peace, but her eyes were fiery. Her piercing look shifted from Marcus to the queen, then back at him.

"The Council will never allow the rachni queen to walk free," she said. "My mother has taught me many things, and one of them is that the crown has only two commandments: further secure the power you already have, and gain more power. Every government does this, and the Council is no different. What do you think will happen if the queen were to be brought before the Council? I can tell you. She would immediately be placed in custody and brought to an undisclosed location. They would do everything in their power to cover it up from the public eye. The queen would then be imprisoned – a gilded prison perhaps, but a prison nonetheless – where they would prepare her to use her as a pawn. It would be even worse for her than it was for the krogan. The krogan were uplifted in a hurry as a quick means to an end, and were then put down when the control was lost. This time though, the queen would be in controlled conditions from the start. She would be put to tests. She would be experimented on. She would be conditioned. Her children would be conditioned. The entire species would become a tool of the Council to be unleashed at their whim.

"And if the public ever found out, it wouldn't be much different, either. The mob still sees the rachni as the ravaging monsters that are responsible for the great destruction. How quickly do you think someone would cry out that the even krogan wouldn't have been the problem if the rachni haven't done what they did? The mob would demand the queen to stand trial for the crimes she never committed. She wouldn't be executed, but I assure you that she would never be set free either. And as a prisoner, the same thing would have happened to her: tests, experiments, conditioning, and being used as a pawn."

She looked once more to the queen's prison, then back at Marcus.

"Every species has the right to self-determination. Every creature has the right to be free if it doesn't actively endanger other sentients." She nodded toward the tank. "And this queen has expressed her peaceful intent. And before you dare say: ' _But what if she's lying?_ ', then I call you a fear-mongering hypocrite of a politician. It's 'innocent until proven guilty', in case you've forgotten."

Marcus smirked then. He realized she was speaking to his helm's integrated vid recording device. Her words were meant for the Council once his report was sent and they reviewed the files.

"Okay," Liara spoke up louder. "Fine! Let's forget about the cliché phrases. How about the fact that the rachni queens during the Rachni Wars never bothered to respond to our hails? For centuries, hundreds of attempts in every possible method that there was no way that they could not understand, yet the rachni stayed silent. Yet now, I see a queen that not only wants to talk, but talks peace?

"Okay. _**Fine!**_ " she was gaining wind. Angry, fiery wind. "What about the fact that my mother, one of the most powerful matriarchs, most powerful biotics, and an asari with one of the greatest mental powers in existence now lies dead after that very mind was subverted by a machine, the very same machine that had, most likely, have been the one to do the same to the old rachni queens?"

She took a deep breath, composing herself.

"Divide and conquer," she said. "Eons-old military tactics. If you want someone beaten as easily as possible, then you need to keep them from trusting each other; you need to keep them fighting each other. You need to keep them technologically stagnated, to turn their creations against them, like the geth, so that they are afraid of studying deeper into the field, and so that they are unable to effectively fight against the bigger and more sinister threat. And you'd need to manipulate a few key figures," she looked pointedly down at her mother's corpse. "To use those powerful people to sow dissent under the guise of something else, so that they choose war, rather than a diplomatic solution."

Finishing her piece, she stared defiantly at Marcus, or rather beyond him, just daring anyone to say something other than letting the rachni queen go.

Marcus shared an amused look with Jaina, then looked back at the queen through her cage.

"Did you hear all that?" he asked.

"Your songs are strong," the queen said. "Your songs resonate with mine. I wish to prevent my kind from being forced to sing the songs of disease."

"Simply running from it won't help," Marcus said. "These things destroyed the Protheans, fifty thousand years ago. They won't stop until we're dead as well."

"The memories of Ancient Queens speak of the Thought-Singers that ruled the Galaxy when Rachni were… less skilled of song… than we were during the wars against asari, salarians, and krogan," the queen said. "The Thought-Singers were strong. They conquered. Their songs were of demand and subjugation. Yet, they fell. I heed your songs. If I become free, I will sing the song of unity with your cause to my children."

"Noveria is freezing to your kind just as to anyone else," Marcus said. "How do you intend to survive or escape it?"

"Our… ship… was brought here," the queen said. "These… needle-men wanted to study it too. We heard their songs; a single craft within it still functions. We will use it. Our ancient memories tell us how. We will know how to fly it."

Marcus looked to his people, taking in their faces. Confident determination was etched on them. He then looked to his side at Jaina and Liara. Their piercing eyes looked back at him confidently. There was all the support he needed, right there.

He turned back toward the rachni queen and spoke officially:

"Rachni queen, as the proxy agent of the Council of Galactic Species, I am offering you a cessation of hostilities between our two entities, effective immediately. Do you accept?"

The queen took a moment to process the meaning, before making a nod with her head and the device produced a sound:

"Yes."

"Then, with my power as a Spectre, I'm releasing you from captivity," Marcus said and proceeded to punch in a few commands on the holding tank terminal.

The tank rose to a higher level, and then the doors at its end opened up. The queen shuffled out of the tank, and turning her head one last time in greeting, left the laboratory in short order.

It was only then, after the queen had left, that Marcus realized he might have created another volatile situation right in their midst. He steeled himself and turned around to face Wrex.

"Wrex," he called slowly.

"Shepard," Wrex replied with a big, nasty grin on his face.

Marcus tilted his head. "You seem… happy?"

The other teammates took a careful, scrutinizing look at the grinning krogan.

"I am. Why wouldn't I be?" he barked.

"I was… expecting that you'd have voiced something against us releasing the queen by this point," Marcus said.

Wrex raised a brow. "What? Why would you think that?"

"Be-cause the rachni are, like, supposed to be the ancient enemies of krogan, or… something like that?" Ashley groused.

Wrex looked back silently down at her, then shook his big head.

"You people obviously have no idea what you're talking about," he rumbled in mild irritation. "The rachni were not krogan enemies. They were _the Council's_ enemies. You thought I'd be angry if the queen was released? Why? You thought I was gonna complain about something like letting my species' sacrifice go in vain? Hah! Us krogan _want_ to fight! We didn't need the Council to beg us to fight a rachni; we jumped at the chance!"

He shook his head, gaining a vicious grin.

"Nah, I don't hate the rachni. I hate _the Council_ – the Council that shakes and shits its pants at the very idea of a rachni. I want the satisfaction of watching them pyjacks squirm when the big threat is here again, and krogan are no longer an option as the tool to bring it down. Hahahahahahaha! Ahhh, Shepard… you have no idea how you've made my day."

Ashley, Kaidan, Garrus, Tali, and Liara all closed their gaping mouths at his declaration.

"Well…" Kaidan spoke. "I guess that's one way of looking at things."

"He has a point, though," Jaina said.

Marcus hummed in silent affirmation. He took a deep breath and released it with a rumble, then looked down to Benezia's body.

"The threat is contained. We shall secure the facility and arrange for a backup nonetheless," he said. "The Normandy will come to us; we'll try to find them an LZ. Jay, we'll prepare the reports. I suspect that by the time we're fully done here and back in space, the Council will want to talk to us."

He looked around the facility once more.

"Let's hurry so we can get the fuck out of this frost. My ass is about to fall off."

..

* * *

 _ **ON AN ADITIONAL NOTE,**_

 _ **Thanks for all the amazing review response for the previous chapter guys! I am really blown away by all the positive feedback! It's like a nourishment and a refreshment at the same time. So, I hope I can count on more of it for this chapter too! It would be a very nice start to a New Year to know you are still out there.**_

 _ **So, how do you feel about my version of Noveria events? How do you feel about Jaina's talk with Wrex? About Benezia? About the rachni queen?**_

 _ **And have a happy New Year, guys!**_


	32. Chapter 32 - Revelations

_**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.**_

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

 _Greetings to everyone. Sorry about the wait. It's been almost a year, I know. This chapter is to blame for that._

 _Basically, as this story advanced, so did I gain new ideas that I realized would be greatly beneficial to the story and would open up new possibilities. But it was problematic integrating those new ideas in an already-developing plot. This chapter, in particular, needed to be amended to do that. Furthermore, I felt a great need to create a backstory for Marcus and Jaina, and while I had a very clear picture of what it should look like, I had great problems on how to incorporate it. **The result was that this chapter was rewritten 6 times, and I'd often abandon it in frustration and go write something else**. So, basically, I never stopped writing. It's just that I never felt satisfied with what I've written._

 _The end result is this chapter that has_ _ **20000 words**_ _and spans several big scenes. There was no way for me to split it, because it flowed too naturally._

 _And I want to thank you all for giving me reviews for the previous chapters, both the good and the bad. Sorry I didn't reply to everyone, but I'm grateful that you have taken the time to do it. Trust me, I really do appreciate it. I hope you continue to do so._

 _Thanks to your pointers, I plan to fix the inconsistencies in my story (for example, Wrex and the one time I mentioned his blood rage; I fully intend to make Wrex as if he is a mutant that is not susceptible to blood rage.) I just don't know when I'll get down to it (I'm lazy. Too lazy.)_

 _There are so many more things that I'd like to say, but – well, there's just too much, so I'll just say the usual one: trust me, I'm an engineer. So, instead, here's the new chapter. I hope you enjoy it._

 _And - oh yeah! Remember, I seem to have a major issue with using articles; I purely doubt I've fixed it. So, there you have it, a fair warning..._

* * *

.

 _ **Chapter posted on 16.12.2018. - almost a year later...**_

 _ **Main Tags:**_ _Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love._

 _ **Additional Tags:**_ _Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes, Intrigue, Militaristic…_

 _ **Rated M**_ _– for mature and adult content._

 _Enjoy…_

* * *

.

 **Chapter 32 –** **Revelations**

.

Six hours after Noveria incident has come to a conclusion, Marcus stood before the comm room's communications system, with Jaina standing behind him and a bit to his right.

Before them, the three Councilors' holographic projections were materializing with a light shimmer. Even through the holographic projections, their somber and tense mood could be visualized.

"Commander," Tevos greeted him, her voice obviously grim. "We have just finished with reviewing your report and mission combat cam recordings from Noveria."

"You have obviously taken your time," Marcus said. "I assume you were thorough?"

" _Very_ thorough," Valern replied gravely.

"The shear amount and scope of the events and their implications are both staggering and alarming," Sparatus spoke grimly in a crisp military manner.

"Then, I suggest we go through one key event at a time as the mission unfolded," Marcus offered. "It'd be easier to cover the elements of lesser concern first."

"Yes, that would be the most efficient way," Valern said as he shared a look with his colleagues. "This meeting will take some time no matter how we look at it."

"True," Tevos agreed, with Sparatus giving a curt nod as well, before she turned to Marcus. "Starting from the comparatively least worrisome fact on this list, we are very alarmed by the fact that the Binary Helix had managed to retrieve a living Rachni egg, as well as to keep it a secret."

"It is obvious that the corporate liberties are proving to be a huge threat to galactic peace," Sparatus said. "First, there was the ExoGeni incident on Feros, then the fact that Saren was a major shareholder of the Binary Helix, and finally this with Rachni – all of which were a huge threat and which we knew nothing about."

"That is true," Valern concurred. "We will have to seriously re-evaluate our intelligence capacities, as well as corporate leeways we grant. The fact that Saren could appropriate facilities right in front of our very noses is not something we can afford anymore."

"We're already sending a large C-Sec contingent to Noveria," Tevos said. "The fact that the Binary Helix labs has attempted breeding rachni soldiers for the purposes of war is most alarming."

"And with that in mind, we are dissatisfied with the fact that you've let the Rachni Queen go, Commander," Sparatus said gruffly.

"What Councilor Sparatus means is that we feel you should have detained the Rachni Queen and brought her to the Citadel," Tevos said. "Despite what your young Dr. T'Soni might think, we'd have treated the Queen with civility. This is a surprising olive branch from the rachni species – a polar opposite from what we've witnessed during the Rachni Wars – and it would have given us an opportunity to forge a true peace."

"Councilors," Marcus spoke up with a hint of irritation coloring his voice, "What you've just described was completely unattainable. The Rachni Queen is not an idiot – that much was clear. She would have known that she'd still be a de-facto prisoner, and I had no way – no leverage, nothing to barter with – to convince her to come peacefully. Any attempt of forceful detention would have left us trapped on a ship, in tight spaces, with a creature that spits acid that eats through metal. That's _not_ a risk I was going to put my people in."

The Councilors looked taken aback, and they looked uncertainly amongst each other.

"Yes, that does seem to put your decision into a completely different perspective," Valern said, sharing a look with the other two. "In that case, it was wise of you to negotiate peaceful intentions with the queen, at least. It is still troublesome that we won't know for sure where she will be until she feels ready to come out of hiding."

"And we have no guarantee that she won't come out of hiding with guns blazing," Sparatus said. "How sure can we be that she was telling the truth, Commander?"

Jaina spoke up, taking a step forward:

"Because we have recovered and examined the rachni translation device, the software, as well as research data that the Binary Helix made on the Rachni Queen," she said. "All data points to the fact that the rachni are truly incapable of lying because they communicate by directly sending thoughts and emotions – which is what the device reads and translates. A lie can be detected in that way."

Sparatus was silent for a moment, mulling this over.

"I see," he said grimly, sharing a look with the other councilors. "Then that makes the next piece of intel even more worrying."

"Yes – the implication that the Rachni were essentially mind-controlled by a third party into attacking us two thousand years ago," Valern said.

"And all data points to it being done by the Sovereign itself," Marcus said.

The Councilors looked amongst each other somberly, before Sparatus spoke:

"Normally, we'd require more proof, but given everything that was revealed during that mission, we cannot ignore the apparent Reaper scenario anymore. We were greatly disturbed with what Benezia had revealed." He then shot a look at Tevos. "Especially about the implication of another Prothean Beacon on Thessia that the asari had kept to themselves."

Tevos's face twitched into a brief grimace of displeasure, before she spoke diplomatically:

"Regardless of that, there was no doubt about it: Benezia _was_ mentally compromised in some unnatural way. We, who had known her, have seen it the moment she spoke on that combat cam recording."

"We have considered the possibility of her being drugged, poisoned, or forced by Saren into committing some type of suicide for some reason or another," Valern spoke, "but we have quickly dismissed it; one does not send their top lieutenant to die like that in order to disseminate a lie, and it is obvious that Benezia held high decision power in his organization. If she was drugged, she would be incapable of doing so. Even if she had a batarian implant in her head, that implant would have crippled her in many ways. Obviously not the case here. Something was done to her, that much was obvious, but none of the technology in existence is capable of performing such a heavy mental distortion to another person."

" _Especially_ to an asari Matriarch," Tevos stated vehemently with fire in her eyes.

"Especially to an asari Matriarch," Valern agreed. "They are bulwarks of mental power. Have you found any traces of implants or surgical tampering with Benezia?"

"None," Jaina said. "Her body was clean. Her mind, though, shows clear evidence of subtle physical alteration, and it was not done by the presence of a foreign body or a surgical tool. Our best guess is that it was an energy field of some kind – one that can be controlled to such a fine precision as to affect only the targeted pathways inside a person's brain, while leaving all others intact. Our ship's doctor assures us that alterations _were_ made, and that they were so precise that they left Benezia's higher functions intact."

The tense mood could be seen settling down onto the councilors.

"It is as we have feared," Tevos said icily. "This is technology unlike anything we have ever thought possible."

"Are you willing, then, to at least operate under the assumption that Reapers _are_ a threat?" Marcus asked.

"At this point, it would be beyond irresponsible of us to assume otherwise," Sparatus stated. "I hate to admit, but everything Benezia revealed puts many former events into a whole different perspective."

"Yes," Valern said, nodding. "An implication that Sovereign mind-controlled Rachni, caused Geth Uprising, even Krogan Rebellions… all of it is most disturbing."

"But even if we do assume that Sovereign is an ancient killing machine bent on destroying all organics, why would anyone, let alone Saren, want to ally himself with it?" Sparatus asked, shaking his head.

"He might not be doing it willingly, Councilor," Jaina said. "There is every chance that he has been indoctrinated himself, and is only doing the Sovereign's bidding. After all, according to Benezia, he found Sovereign a decade ago. It is more than enough time for him to fall victim to whatever technology Sovereign might be using."

"That is perfectly plausible," Sparatus reluctantly agreed. "But what we don't understand is why would Sovereign need Saren at all?"

"Commander," Tevos spoke to Marcus, "At one point during the exchange with Benezia, you touched her, and at that point, it is obvious that _you_ were the one who initiated a mind-meld type of connection. This shouldn't be possible for a human, yet you do have it. And from Benezia's reaction, it is obvious that you know much more than you are letting on. I think the time has come for you to be candid with us."

Marcus crossed his arms over his chest.

"You understand that I don't have the time to waste proving anything of what I'm about to say, then, Councilors," he challenged.

Tevos nodded. "At this point, we are well aware that it would be very detrimental and dangerous for us to _**not**_ take your every word with utmost seriousness, Commander. Please. Speak."

Marcus shared a look with Jaina, then spoke:

"The reason I have abilities similar to mind-melding, is because Thorian had transferred them to me via Cipher; it was a piece of Prothean physiology, and Thorian considered it a standard piece of that package. Also, the Cipher has, since then, completely solidified the Eden Prime Beacon images in my head. I now have a very clear picture of what has happened."

Valern nodded. "We're listening…"

"Very well. The message that the Beacon has transferred to me showed how the Prothean Empire fell to the Reapers," he said. "It happened with a sudden strike that caught the Protheans off-guard, and has resulted in a complete, one-sided obliteration of their Empire. The reason for this was because the very first target that the Reapers had struck was the Citadel itself, from which Protheans ruled their empire – the very same Citadel where you stand now."

"How is it possible that the Reapers have struck the Citadel in a surprise assault?" Sparatus asked, frowning. "The Citadel is at the core of the galaxy. The Reapers would have had to travel all the way from the border; they would have been noticed and intercepted long before that."

"Exactly the point," Marcus nodded. "The Reapers didn't travel from any border at all. They have jumped directly through the Citadel. _**Through**_ the Citadel itself, Councilors. The beacon had shown me those images of it as clear as day: the Citadel is one giant mass relay."

A bomb of silence fell upon everyone. The Councilors just stared blankly at Marcus for a moment, before all three of them slowly raised their gaze and looked around, wide-eyed, visualizing the huge station around them for a few moments, before they returned their confused and somewhat shocked gazes back to Marcus.

"Are you sure about this, Commander?!" Sparatus demanded.

"The imprint claims that is the truth," Marcus said.

"But you'd think we would have noticed!" Sparatus continued as he shared a look with his fellow Councilors.

"With respect, but it's purely doubtful that anyone ever could, Councilors," Jaina said, shaking her head. "When it comes down to it, nobody knows next to anything about The Citadel. The whole station is completely autonomous. It's maintained by the keepers, and nobody else. It power source is completely hidden and unidentifiable. Nobody really knows how the station functions, where does it draw its energy from, and it's obvious it doesn't waste some fuel to do it. The only other known structure to show the same properties is a mass relay. Frankly, from where I'm standing, the connection is pretty damn obvious!"

When she finished, Tevos was tense, Valern was frowning in concentration as his eyes darted around and scenarios played out through his mind, and Sparatus was looking angrily around, presumably at the Citadel's interior, his mandibles fluttering rapidly.

"I do not understand," Valern spoke slowly, extremely slowly, as he looked to other Councilors. "What Commander Jaina says makes every sense. How come nobody ever considered this?"

"Organic nature," Marcus offered. "We're designed to only seek things out if we're lacking in something, but if we have everything we need, then we tend to become blinded by it. And Citadel provides everything except food. Keepers take care of everything, and all _we_ need to do is enjoy."

Jaina picked up:

"It has lulled us into thinking it was a safe harbor, when in fact it might very well have been intended to be that kind of a trap all along. We come and make it the center of our society. Then, at one point, the Reapers come from the other side and lock down the Citadel – and with it, most likely lock down the mass relay network. Suddenly, the entire systems are completely isolated and the Galactic comm system goes dark. Nobody knows what's going on while the Reapers go one system to another, slowly but methodically wiping out all organics that they consider a threat to them, just like any machine would. After it is all done, they retreat to the other side and wait for some other species to make the same mistakes."

Marcus continued, "And what she said is exactly what the Beacon had shown me happened to the Protheans themselves. A perfect wipeout. Just like a machine would do."

"Wait," Sparatus spoke agitatedly, raising his hand. "Just… wait. You keep saying that Reapers have used the Citadel to jump in and wipe out the Prothean seat of government, but how could have they done it if the Citadel was built by the Protheans and controlled by the Protheans?"

It was Valern, then, who dropped the logic bomb that silenced the room:

"Unless… it was not built by the Protheans at all," he said slowly in realization.

The other two Councilors looked at him in shock, before all three of them slowly turned to Marcus, their faces expectant, questioning.

"The Beacon message does not explicitly confirm nor deny it," he said stoically. Then he added, "But it _did_ contain the comm logs from the Prothean Citadel Fleet when it all started happening. When the Citadel started activating, it was clear that they had no idea what was going on, and it was clear that they were seeing something like that for the first time."

The councilors were numb.

"Spirits…" Sparatus mumbled. "This… this would be the perfect method to destroy organics indeed! A perfect trap. And a machine would have all the time in the world…"

Tevos raised a placating hand.

"Let us not jump to conclusions too hastily," she said calmly. Her voice bore the tiniest bit of tremble, though. "Everything suggests that Reapers cannot return as easily. Saren is attempting to help Sovereign bring about their return. It indicates that they are unable to until he does whatever he needs to do. That means that Reapers won't be jumping right on top of us yet."

"Agreed," Valern said. "Commander, do you know why is it that Sovereign cannot open the Citadel on his own?"

"Because according to the Beacon imprint, one small cell of Prothean resistance managed to remain hidden on the planet Ilos by weathering the war in stasis pods," he replied. "From there, they devised a method to sabotage the means through which the Citadel opened to the other side. They used the Conduit – the Relay Monument – to reach the interior of the locked Citadel and sabotage it from within. In order to undo the damage, Sovereign must fix it in the same method, because if he attacks outright, the Citadel will close its arms, preventing him access. Besides, he's a bit on the large side to enter the tower. He needs an agent to go through the Conduit, and Saren, with his extensive Spectre skills, knowledge, and access was the perfect pawn."

"Then why didn't Saren do it before he was discovered to be a traitor?" Sparatus countered. "He was a Spectre. He had access. Why would he need to seek out the Conduit at all?"

"Likely because he is not skilled enough to undo whatever it is the best Prothean minds did," Jaina replied. "I can bet that Sovereign needs to undo the damage himself, and I bet that the only way for him to do it is by docking with the station itself – not something he'd manage to do quickly enough. The moment a two-kilometer unknown appears in the Widow system, the Citadel would close its arms down, and the fleets could drive it away."

"Which is why Saren needs to take over the Citadel Tower in order to prevent the closing of the Citadel arms," Marcus picked up. "To do that, he needs an army – geth and krogan clones. But he cannot bring that kind of army to the Citadel via conventional means. Hence – the Conduit. The prototype relay that the Protheans themselves reverse-engineered and built. Likely a security measure – that if the Citadel was ever attacked, that they could summon instantaneous reinforcements from a hidden base. They never managed to do so, but fortunately, the relay remained; most likely, the keepers didn't dismantle it is because they thought it was their masters' technology."

The Councilors digested this, then Sparatus spoke up:

"Valern, has there been any development about the relay monument?" he asked.

"There… has been _something_ ," Valern said slowly. "The team _has_ discovered a certain type of resonance within the monument that corresponds to element zero containment field found in other dormant mass effect relays, only much weaker, which is why it was never discovered before with the older equipment. The reason I didn't alert the two of you was because the resonance could be explained in other ways as well. I wanted them to perform more targeted in-depth tests that would undeniably prove or dispute whether the relay monument is an actual relay."

"Well, I'm not taking any more chances concerning the Citadel's security now that you've provided that info," Sparatus growled. "I'll be issuing orders to Palin to triple the Presidium C-Sec presence and to bring forth heavy weapons and armored C-Sec shuttles."

Tevos raised her hand toward Sparatus in a placating motion.

"If we must do it, then let us do it discretely," she practically demanded. "The last thing we need is sudden hysteria on the Presidium."

"In the meantime, we need to decide on the course of action concerning Ilos," Valern said, turning to Marcus and Jaina. "I assume you've considered going there and cutting Saren off from reaching the Conduit?"

Marcus shook his head firmly.

"No, Councilor, that would be tantamount to suicide. I have only one frigate and fourteen ground team specialists – maybe twenty if I pull some of the Normandy's personnel. Saren, in turn, has dozens of ships, and thousands of foot troopers. If he's to be cut off above Ilos, no less than a fleet would suffice, and I don't think even that would be enough considering Sovereign's power that he advertised above Feros."

"Hmm… Understandable, but we cannot have a large fleet just sitting in the middle of Terminus waiting for Saren to come, and this is not diplomatic tensions I'm talking about," Sparatus said. "Those ships need supplies, logistics – all vulnerable to pirate sabotage – and we'd be crippling our defenses. What if Saren pulls some other stunt to get to the Citadel?"

"Agreed, which is we weren't thinking of sending the fleet there at all," Jaina said. "We were thinking of doing something else – something to stop Saren before he even moves."

"What do you have in mind?" Tevos asked.

"Has there been any news from Captain Kirrahe from Virmire?" Marcus asked.

The other two Councilors looked to Valern.

"Nothing new," the salarian replied. "The last time he reported back, they were about to land a scouting party onto the planet, and the protocol has them maintain radio silence. They will, of course, report immediately if they find something, and the updates are streamed directly to me," he said, and tapped the side of his head where his earbud was, then continued, "Do you still think that Saren is there?"

"That's the only lead we've got," Jaina said pointedly. "We were thinking of joining Kirrahe. Maybe if we're there, we'll be able to point out to something that Kirrahe might not be able to tell simply because of our current experience in hunting Saren. And besides, there was that issue of cloned krogan on Noveria. Virmire might very well be his base where he is cloning them."

"That might be wise," Valern commented. "Your stealth frigate might help him investigate the situation in a much better way than…"

He suddenly trailed off, then quickly raised his hand to his ear, listening to someone sending him a report from the other side of his secure comm. Everyone waited for a few seconds, before Valern slowly lowered his hand.

"I've just received the word," Valern started hurriedly, "We've received an emergency broadcast from Kirrahe's team. It is heavily garbled, but our technicians are saying that they're seeing fragments of the codes for 'Black Tide' and 'Thunderclap'."

Marcus's eyes narrowed.

"Those are codes that denote critical danger to Citadel and a call for a full fleet!" he said.

"They are," Sparatus replied. "This whole thing just got more complicated. I'm calling Palaven. They can have the tenth fleet fully mobilized in hours. Commander, we need the Normandy above Virmire ASAP. That fleet will need to know what it's facing, and your ship is the only one that can do it."

"We're on it," he stated. "What else?"

"Nothing from you," Sparatus said as he exchanged a look with the other Councilors. "There's a lot that needs to be done on our side, and we don't have much time. War spirits be with you, Spectres. Council out."

The line cut and their projections winked out of existence.

Marcus breathed a sigh of relief and leaned forward against the console, sinking into a hip. He felt Jaina's hands snaking over his flanks from behind and hugging him around his broad chest. He turned around in her arms, raising his own over her shoulder and hugging her back.

"All is right with the world," she said as she cuddled into his side, her palm tracing across his front.

"Yeah," he agreed, then sighed. "We managed to convince them, but I swear it's like herding wild cats. I'd rather be chasing Larry, the Shifty-Looking Cow any day of the week."

She barked a laugh. "Yeah, I could sense it from you." She trailed a finger across his chest, then took his free hand into hers and felt it up. "I also sense that you're like a coiled spring. The mission, the post-mission work, this report with the Council… it has left you high-strung. You feel as if there's another shoe that's about to drop."

She trailed her hand up his forearm and bicep, then onto his chest again – homing unmistakably right onto a bruise from a bullet impact against his armor, and pressing gently with two fingers.

"And these wounds you've received during the mission aren't helping things," she said as she began to gently massage the bruise. "Dumbass. You let your shield drop five times," she chided softly.

He wondered absentmindedly how she knew the exact location of that bruise.

"It was a calculated risk, you know that," he said.

"I know," she agreed. "And I'd have done the same. Still doesn't mean I have to like it much. Now you're bruised and hurting… here… here… here… and here," she said, her fingers touching each of the hidden bruises dead on. "And this one here, it pierced right through. Oops! Sorry; didn't mean to make it hurt," she said when he flinched.

Marcus was looking down at her incredulously.

"How do you know where each of my impact wounds is?" he asked. She hadn't seen any single one of them, there was no way she could find them so accurately.

Jaina smiled up at him, placing a palm right at the center of his chest and spreading her fingers widely.

"The same way I know that you feel high-strung," she spoke. "The way you're tense because you think the day is not over yet and that you still have that post-mission debrief with each of our people to see if they're okay, if it affected them. The way you're tired to the bone, yet you keep quiet and are drawing on those hidden reserves to appear strong and on top of things, even though you'd rather just be Marcus instead of Commander Shepard, drink some beer and relax at this moment, then bend me over our cabin desk and fuck me senseless… The way you're realizing right at this very moment that this is far more than that usual feminine intuition of mine that I like to brag on about…"

His piercing gaze settled on her for a few long seconds, and she couldn't help but remember how that gaze never failed to make some interesting sensations in her lower tummy.

His hand gently encircled her neck, his fingers gently trailing across her skin. She felt his Prothean senses seep through her skin, sinking deep, and she surrendered to it, welcomed them as they searched and prowled through her, feeling deliciously invasive, and greeted them with the fledgling Prothean senses of her own.

They were weak. Still underdeveloped. Only beginning to grow. But, Marcus recognized them exactly for what they were.

"You…" he muttered, looking in amazement down at her. "How's this possible?! Since when…?!"

She shrugged with one shoulder.

"For about a week now," she said. "I think they were there even longer than that, but I didn't sense them at first." She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "I'm pretty sure that the first time it happened was when we took out Ton Actis and Haliat on Tuntau," she smiled, running a finger down his chest. "It was when Liara and I were with you, teasing you. That sexual haze was quite something. That's the first time I _really_ felt it; wasn't sure what it was at the time, though. So I decided to keep a close inner eye on it. Didn't take me long to figure it out for what it was."

"And you didn't think to inform me?" he asked incredulously, his eyes never leaving hers.

She tapped a finger over his mouth to shush him. "Of course I didn't want to inform you," she said placatingly, her eyes not shying away from his. "Hell, I wasn't even sure what it was. It was weak. I could barely feel anything with it. It wouldn't do to raise a false alarm. Even if it is real, it would have definitely made you worry. Not something I wanted to do with what was coming our way."

They were silent for a moment, and then he took that hand into his, kissing the finger that was pressed against his lips.

"The unknown burdens wives take on for their husbands and all that?" he asked with a small smirk.

She snorted, faking dismissiveness. "You wish! I was just thinking of the mission first. You men like to think you're the center of the w- _hmpf_ …" she was quieted with his lips capturing hers into a scalding kiss.

The kiss smacked, and she licked her lips, looking coy. "Alright, so maybe it was a little bit about you," she admitted. "A teensy-tiny bit."

He shook his head at her.

"How the hell hadn't I noticed them?" he wondered out loud.

"Pfffft!" she blew air dismissively. "Please. You're talking to a Spectre candidate who lost by a tiny margin. I know how to handle my mental facilities to keep it hidden."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He smacked her ass. "You're amazing and all that. Now, how is it possible that you've developed them?"

She shook her head, turning serious. "No idea. I figure you must've infected me somehow. Maybe a remnant Thorian spore got out of you and into me. We do share the same bed, after all…"

"I guess that makes sense. Did you go to Chakwas with this?"

She shook her head. "No. I wanted you to know first."

"Ah-hah," he nodded. He swatted her firm posterior once more for good measure. "Consider me notified. Now – forward, march!"

"Yes, sir! Doctor Chakwas's place it is, sir!"

* * *

.

The medical scanner's arm finished its run, moving up and folding up by the side of the medical bed. Chakwas read the results, then nodded.

"Well, it's confirmed," she declared officially, then looked at Jaina who was already standing up from the medical bed. "I'm seeing _the same_ types of retroviruses as the ones that have been originally introduced into Marcus's organism by Thorian spores!"

Jaina shrugged as if it was nothing. "Told you."

"This is a quite an interesting development, I must say," Chakwas continued examining the reads. "I'm seeing the early development stages of the same new organs that Marcus has – a new brain lobe, new glands, new skin receptors… They are at an earlier development stage than Marcus's were at the moment when we discovered them, but they are undeniably there, and they _are_ progressing steadily. It seems like they're developing more slowly than his were, true, but I'm seeing a full potential for them to grow as mature and as potent."

"Any adverse effects?" Marcus asked from where he stood over Jaina's shoulder.

"None that I'm seeing," Chakwas said. "Her body chemistry is in perfect balance. What's more, I'd be so bold to say that because the pace of the new organ development is slower with her, there's a lesser risk for something to go awry."

Jaina puffed with bravado.

"Please," she said, smirking. "If this guy can get away with it with no adverse effects, I'm even better off than him." She smirked at him. "And it looks like I'll have an even better access to all those little things you men try to hide."

He merely snorted, then nodded up at Chakwas.

"We still need to know how this happened," he said.

"Way ahead of you, Commander," Chakwas said as she scanned Jaina with her omni-tool. "This didn't come from the Thorian, that much is obvious."

"She didn't get infected at the same time as I did?"

"No. And there are no remaining Thorian spores in her that could have crossed over from your body to hers to deliver the retroviruses; they had been flushed by your body long ago. And in fact… it is clear to me that the one who 'infected' her really _was_ you, Commander."

She flicked the screen, turning it toward them and pointed out.

"These retroviruses in her body are the ones who have transferred the needed ingredients for her to develop her fledgling abilities. They carry your gene markers, Marcus."

Marcus stood frozen for one second.

"Are you telling me that I have been spreading this unknowingly all over the ship?" he demanded slowly, the vessel's Commanding Officer coming in full force of authority to the fore.

Chakwas chuckled mirthfully.

"Hardly, Commander," she said. "These retroviruses cannot survive in open air – especially not in the ship's controlled atmosphere. They require a bodily fluid transfer with a minimal temperature variance. Hold still," she said to Marcus and began to scan various parts of his body with her omni-tool.

"Hmm… no traces in saliva or sweat glands… and very little concentration in the blood," she mused out loud. "Hmm… I wonder…"

She moved her omni-tool all the way down and held it over his crotch, and the omni-tool chirped cheerfully.

"Hah!" she cackled, the skin at the corners of her eyes crinkling in amusement. "Well, now we know how she got infected!" she declared.

An understanding dawned on both Marcus's and Jaina's face, before Jaina frowned.

"Wait, doctor, shouldn't have my birth control implant killed off all of his guys and anything they might have been carrying? You know – like, the fabled 100% anti-baby and anti-STD it's supposed to be?"

Chakwas chuckled. "And normally you'd be right, but, you see, darling… you _have_ been _ingesting_ , remember?"

Jaina blinked, then made a silent 'oohhh' expression. And then a coy smirk appearing on her lips, looking like the cat that got the cream. Literally.

"How the hell do _you_ know she's been ingesting?" Marcus demanded.

The two women just gave him a blank stare, and it dawned on him.

"Female talks!" he cursed out, then sighed exasperatedly. "Doesn't that break some sort of doctor-patient confidentiality?"

Chakwas barked a laugh. "In your dreams, Commander."

He just rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation.

"So, you see, Commander," Chakwas continued smugly, "unless you start having the liaisons of such type with an entire ship, I'm pretty sure that the Prothean abilities will remain squarely within the Shepard family."

Chakwas then suddenly seemed to realize what she just said and looked more alert.

"You're kidding," Marcus said, both him and Jaina realizing the unsaid implication.

"… I don't think I am," Chakwas replied slowly. "With your permission, I'd like to prepare the groundwork for that. Your case is unique. The fact that this might transfer through your genes is not an insignificant matter. I will contact some of my colleagues – using the highest security protocols, of course, and with no rush."

"That… actually sounds wise," Jaina admitted as her hand unconsciously found Marcus's.

"In the meantime," Chakwas continued, "you report regularly to me so that we can monitor the progress."

"Will do, Doc," she nodded, then turned fully toward him, stepping in close. "Aren't you a lucky son of a bitch? Now you get to use an excuse about me wanting to increase my newly-developing Prothean powers to get more blowjobs."

He snorted. "If I remember correctly, it was you who woke me up the other day demanding your protein shake."

That earned him a lighthearted elbow to the gut.

"Ass," Jaina smirked, turning away and crossing her arms. "You're lucky that I love you. And your protein shakes. That tap better not run dry, ya hear? I want my superpowers, pronto."

He hummed pensively, languidly hugging her around her stomach with one hand and pulling her in for a kiss on the cheek from behind. "Hmm… I think I can make that sacrifice."

"Wiseass," Jaina amended, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. Her eyes fell on the doorway to Liara's quarters, and her mirth turned to seriousness.

"On to important matters?" Marcus asked, sensing the mood shift in her.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I had the thought that she'd be completely blown away by the fact that I, too, have gained these Prothean abilities, but then I remembered that she just lost her mom," she spoke, thinking of Liara. She then frowned, adding in a wry, self-admonishing manner, "Somehow, I don't think that trying to talk to her about joining me for a regular daily blowjob would be a very good idea."

Marcus snorted. "Yeah, no kidding."

Jaina nodded. "Now that her mom is dead, she'll need some support. She could argue all she wants that they weren't in the best of relations, but I'd bet my ass that she could do well with some hugs and cuddles right about now. Losing your family is never easy." There was a solemn pause. "I should know that better than anyone."

He rubbed her hips supportively. "You pulled through just fine," he said softly.

She smirked. "Weeellll, I dunno… If there wasn't this dashing young ruffian to hold me tight and scoop me up with him onto a certain freighter, I don't know what would have become of me."

He chuckled. "I happen to remember you calling me other names than 'dashing' back then. Mostly it was 'bastard' and 'I hate you', if I remember correctly."

"I still hate you, you bastard," she said lovingly, then led him by the hand. "Come on. Our asari needs us."

* * *

.

The moment they stepped through the door, he felt that something was wrong. Very wrong.

Humans, by nature, have that innate ability to sense the general mood, but the moment he and Jaina stepped into Liara's room, his Prothean senses screamed of the sour, rancid sense of dejection and simmering fury.

His eyes immediately homed in on its occupant. Liara.

She stood in front of her information station, leaning heavily against the desktop, her head low, cold fury radiating out of her. Fury… and a sense of deep, _deep_ betrayal.

He knew immediately that something more than Benezia's death had occurred.

His hand shot out to Jaina, stopping her; he knew she sensed it too, but this was not something that gentle touch and talking could fix. He felt it… Liara was seconds away from tearing the room apart. Whatever it was, it was big.

Liara raised her head and looked at the two of them, and he almost flinched.

The young scientist was gone.

Her blue eyes had turned darker. Crueler. Cold and determined. It was a look that killed. He knew then, that he was seeing a young version of Benezia at her prime. A woman so strong that she could contain her fury and sense of betrayal with willpower alone, as she was doing right now. It was something worthy of absolute respect in his eyes.

"What happened?" he heard himself demanding calmly, but firmly.

Liara was silent for a moment, motionless, her hard glare meeting his unflinchingly.

"They revoked my academic license." Her voice was deep, cold and hard, promising retribution. "The rector of Armali University herself told it to my face not ten minutes ago."

Marcus tilted his head. This didn't make any sense. From the look of Jaina, she thought so too.

"Did they explain themselves?" he asked, his voice just as hardened.

"Oh, they did," Liara said, her voice trembling in contained fury and disdain as she looked back toward the screens. "They didn't want a stain on the University's name." She spared a brief glance back at him. "Turns out that the Council of Matriarchs of Thessia has been holding out hope that Benezia was either actually secretly trying to undermine Saren or that she would be quietly taken care of. They didn't like the truth we found out; they most certainly didn't like what Benezia told us. Now, they're labeling Benezia a traitor to asari and trying to censor everything in connection to her. They have already confiscated all of T'Soni assets, all the properties, and all of mine and Benezia's accounts." She shook her head. "But that's not anywhere near the worst of it. It's that they want to shut me up. They want to discredit me. They want to ruin all the credibility and face that I had worked so hard to build. They've issued a directive to the University to revoke my license, they have demanded that the University put a black mark on my name so that I cannot apply to any other universities either, and the worst thing of all… they have frozen my college and doctorate degrees." She looked back at them. "Any government jobs would reject my degrees as invalid."

"What the fuck?!" Jaina exclaimed loudly. "That's an illegal thing to do!"

Liara snorted ruefully. "Maybe in human territories. Not with the Asari Republics," she said acidly. "They may be a democracy outwardly, but I can assure you that they have worked hard throughout the history to build such laws and traditions to ensure obedience by the high-educated intellectuals – the ones who would rock the boat. It's just that I never believed that they'd ever been so rotten to ever do it to anyone. Now, though, I have to wonder how many others like me have been fed to the darkness throughout our history."

Jaina was stunned. And Marcus… for some reason, he was not surprised by the move at all. He knew governments did such things. It's just that it was harder to do in the Alliance. The Republics, though? They were outwardly democracy, but everyone knew that it was the Council of Matriarchs who held the true power. They gave bread and games to their maidens, social security to their matrons, and they could do whatever they pleased under the traditional guise of their matriarchal wisdom. And money, of course.

"Well, the money is not a problem," Jaina said, crossing her arms. "The freeze on your accounts and property can be easily rectified with a Spectre clearance."

Liara's face scrunched up in distaste. She pushed herself away from the desk and shifted away from them, raising her hand.

"I don't want you to fight my battles," she said angrily to Jaina. "And I don't even give a damn about my inheritance. My entire life, I've had to fight for the right to be recognized as a _true_ academic, a true scientist, and because of my inheritance, everyone was seeing me as an entitled little girl. I've had to fight every step of the way, I've had to be the best. I had to _prove_ that I am the best. For 50 years, I've worked my ass off to get to where I was. I had conquered adversity, rivalries, and I came on top of it all to become one of the youngest doctors in the history of the Armali University, and one of the greatest experts and researchers in Prothean field ever. And now, these… these _cunts_ want to take it away from me just so they could cover their blunder? They want to trample all over my academic achievements just so that they wouldn't look bad?!" By then, she was openly seething. "I. Will. _Destroy_ them."

Marcus, his face stony, nodded. "And you don't want us to interfere."

"You're damn right I don't want you to interfere," Liara stated, her voice trembling from fury. "I will not be a damsel in distress. I will not have you rescuing me. I will not be using your Spectre authority and have people point fingers at me for taking shortcuts. I want to make them pay for screwing me over like this by my own means."

She was shaking from fury, but her body had taken on a challenging posture. Her fists were balled, her eyes were firm. She was ready to tackle.

"Good," Marcus rumbled menacingly. "Then act on it. One condition. No shady, backstabbing work. I don't want anything to come back to me. If you want to destroy them – destroy them. But you will do it so that they can see it coming from a mile away, that it's coming from you, and you will do it in such a way that it cannot be said that you used underhanded tricks."

Liara nodded.

Marcus then tapped the comm system.

"Cargo bay: prepare the sparring mats," he said. "Ground team report to the sparring mats in 15 minutes." He looked back to Liara. "Well, what're you waiting for?"

Liara wordlessly stormed past him and Jaina, nearly ripping her clothes off with purpose as she went toward her locker to switch them for her sparring ware. Marcus caught Jaina's gaze and nodded toward the door.

When the doors closed behind them, and they walked across a currently empty medbay, Jaina spoke:

"Did we just have our first fight with our girl?" she asked.

"I wouldn't go that far," he said.

"Yeah, I thought so, just wanted to make sure," she said, then paused. "Hey… Is it weird that I felt the need to have Liara angrily order me to my knees and have me satisfy her with my tongue?"

He glanced at her once, then back to the front of him. "No, I too wanted to see Liara angrily ordering you to your knees and have you satisfying her with your tongue," he said as they passed beyond the medbay and through the crew deck. "But that's not what Liara needs right now. That negative energy of hers needs to be emptied out. Violently. And simple sparing won't do. What she needs is to flex her biotics. And flex them to bursting."

She looked up at him questioningly. "Nobody on the ground team is anywhere near her equal in power," she argued.

"That's why I summoned the entire ground team," he said as they entered the elevator. "Down there, on the mats, Liara will face all four of us biotics at once. Wrex, Kaidan, you, and me. Each of us fighting at 50% to her 110%. We will be coordinated. And we'll do it safely and sanely to draw out and burn out that insanity that's gripping her."

"You always did know how to handle an angry, irate female," Jaina said, reminiscing.

She sighed, closing her eyes and mentally composing herself. When she opened them, she was once again a hard, focused commander that made her enemies piss their pants with that look alone.

"You're right, though," she said, determined. She focused on him, reaching out with her new senses, and touched his upper arm, feeling. He was furious at what was happening to Liara, but he kept it contained. He knew that having Liara solve it on her own was the right answer, but it still tore at him to not be able to act. "Don't worry, Marc. Nobody messes with our girl."

* * *

.

The cargo bay was abuzz with contained excitement.

The bystanders watched with bated breath as the Normandy's specialist team prepared for a biotic showdown. Wrex, Kaidan, Marcus, and Jaina all stood fully prepared to face off against a single small asari. But it was that little asari that radiated the most menacing, erratic aura of them all.

"The rules are as follows," Marcus said. "Biotic barriers are active at all times. Warp assaults are forbidden. Detonations are forbidden. Anything else goes. Tali?"

"The dampening fields are ready, Shepard," she replied. "They'll catch anyone or anything that gets sent flying beyond the border."

He nodded, then, "Garrus?"

"Ready to referee," the turian replied.

"Ash?"

"Medkit is ready."

Marcus nodded then looked over at Liara who paced menacingly near the center of the sparing area, her demeanor dark and impatient.

Garrus called out, "On your sets!"

Liara immediately stopped her pacing and dropped into an aggressive stance, her biotic aura flaring mightily. The other four biotics that surrounded her responded in kind.

"Begin!"

Liara screamed like a banshee and charged.

* * *

.

It ended up being less of a spar and more of a biotic fireworks. Incessant 10-minute long fireworks. Something that far surpassed un-augmented body limits. And Liara had given it her all. Every ounce. Every last spec of her biotic power. There was no winner; there never was any intention for there to be one in the first place. It was just a fight to burn out all of the negative energy, and banish all the negative thoughts and emotions that had gripped her, until it was all spent and she was left as nothing more than a bundle of raw, primal instincts.

Goddess, she had needed it badly.

Now that the spar was over, she was back in her quarters with Marcus and Jaina. Or, more accurately, she was nearly carried off back to her quarters by Marcus and Jaina. She felt so empty and drained that she could barely lift her arms.

But it felt good. So good. So Goddess-damn good!

Her body had a light spattering of bruises that would be quickly healing away with medigel. The most annoying thing was the sporadic nosebleed from biotic overuse – something that medigel couldn't quite contain. With annoyance, she kept sniffing and wiping at the thin trail of purple blood with her knuckles as she sat on her bed, wearing only a sports bra and boy shorts.

A large form appeared right next to her.

"Let me see," Marcus's voice reverberated.

He took the tips of her tentacles between the fingers of one hand and lifted her chin with the other, tilting her head back. Still holding her tentacles gently so that she had to keep her head tilted, he began to swab under her nose with a wet tissue.

"Marcus!" she complained in mild irritation. "I'm not a baby, I can…"

"That's enough, you," he said, his fingers tightening the slightest bit around the tips of her tentacles.

Liara dropped her hands back down into her lap in annoyance and consigned to her fate.

Not that it didn't feel bad to be pampered.

And not like his strong fingers tightening around her tentacles in such a dominating way didn't feel _very_ nice.

And that stern look he gave her sure did cause some interesting sensations deep in her lower tummy, alright.

Not that she'd ever admit it out loud, dammit! She was a strong and independent woman! Who, right now, wanted nothing more than to be pampered. Which was weird, because she also wanted to deliver excessive amounts of pain and righteous fury to the entire Council of Matriarchs of Thessia so badly at the same time. Damn these asari emotions of hers! Why did they have to be so complex? She pondered this conundrum and decided that she'd take pampering now and topple governments later. No way would she forget what those cunts on Thessia have done to her.

Marcus was trying not to chuckle as he read the shifting tides of Liara's mood with extreme accuracy of his senses as he wiped the remaining traces of blood off her face. Especially considering how she unconsciously made an extremely cute pouting face.

It was a stark contrast to her eyes, though.

Strange, how the combination made her look alluring.

A young female she might be, but her eyes had lost a lot of their old brightness. There was a cold, dark, merciless fury residing in them. Yet somehow, that darkness made her look all the more alluring. All the more beautiful.

Just like Jaina was all those years ago, right after Mindoir.

Speak of the devil, the woman walked into the room from the medbay, carrying a few packs of medigel bandages and energizing drinks. She carried herself with a spring in her step and a cheerful casualness, despite, at one point, being thrown clear across the ring by Liara earlier during the spar.

She handed him a couple of bandages, then plopped down onto the floor next to Liara's legs and busied herself with adhering a bandage over a bruise at Liara's side while taking up possession of Liara's lap with her upper body, just as Marcus busied himself with adhering a minor bandage to the corner of Liara's brow.

"There. All done," Jaina declared, then fully draped herself over Liara's lap, resting her chin on top of her crossed hands. "Feeling better?"

"I'll feel better when I get back at those cunts for doing what they did," Liara said. It was definitely interesting to hear her use that language. "I will not go quietly into the night the way they'd like me to."

"Oh, I think that this spar can attest to the latter already being the case," Marcus said as he sat onto the bed behind Liara and drew her back against him. "Those banshee screams of yours should be weaponized. Or at least used as a psychological weapon."

Jaina slapped his thigh reproachfully.

It made Liara crack the first tiny ghost of a smile in the corner of her lips. "Well, I sure am thankful that you gave me the opportunity to vent it all out… Goddess knew I needed it."

"Trust me, the ship needed it more," Marcus said in dry humor. "I can't chase Saren with its bulkheads gone."

Liara gave him a half-serious glare over her shoulder; the corners of her lips were rising, though. "Is that a roundabout way of complimenting me, or pacifying an irate female – hmm, Commander Shepard?"

"Well, I am doing a fine work out of it either way, ain't I, T'Soni?" He rumbled next to her ear as his hand roamed her midriff.

Liara was silent for a moment.

"Yes. You are," she said quietly. "Thank you. To both of you," she said to Jaina who lounged over her lap. "Especially for putting up with me. I know it isn't easy for you to do, but I really appreciate it for letting me handle this affair on my own. I need to do this."

"We know," Jaina rubbed her thigh. "Just don't summon the Reapers on their asses in your quest for vengeance, okay?"

Liara coughed a small laugh. "I won't. Believe me."

"We will," Jaina said. "And don't worry. We'll be putting you up as much as you need," she said solemnly, before a mischievous smile appeared on her lips. "We'll be putting you up over Marcus's knee whenever our Normandy's bulkheads get threatened."

Liara blushed, but she was smiling – lightly, like a ghost of a smile, but a smile nonetheless. Her hand traced over Marcus's on her midriff, lacing her fingers through his.

"There's few other places I'd feel safer at," she said, looking up at him. "And few other hands I'd feel safer under."

The two shared a deep, long look, the darkness in her eyes diminishing at least a little bit.

Marcus took her cheek with his opposite hand. He traced his thumb across her lips. He felt their texture, their softness and warmth under his pad. The soft folds of flesh felt exquisite. Bewitching.

He leaned in, and she met him halfway, the two of them settling into a deep, lingering kiss. Jaina enjoyed every moment watching it. Her eyes absorbed every detail with great relish – the way their lips mashed together, the way they molded against each other. The way they smacked, their tongues writhed together, and the way gasps escaped them. The way the doors to Liara's room hissed open. The way that…

 _Wait_ … _what?_

Jaina's head shot toward the doors just as Marcus' and Liara's lips parted with a loud smack, the two of them turning in surprise.

Right there, at the doorway, were Ashley and Tali carrying bottles of liquor and a few glasses, and blinking as they took in the scene.

For a few moments, nobody moved a muscle.

"Well, I best get going," Marcus declared in a most casual manner as he extricated himself and stood up. "I still need to check up on Wrex and Kaidan down at the cargo hold, see if they've pulled a muscle or whatnot."

Jaina's eyes narrowed.

"You're seriously bailing out on me?" she asked incredulously, with the slightest tinge of edge to her voice.

"I wasn't the one who forgot to lock the doors on their way in," he said, and she had the decency to look sheepish. "And besides, honey, I'm a married man; I got a wife to do all the thinking and talking for me. Ash, Tali…"

With that, the doors closed behind him and sealed shut on everyone's fate.

For a couple moments more, nobody spoke.

Then, Jaina stood up, turning a resigned look Ashley and Tali's way.

"Okay, guys," she spoke, taking a deep sigh. "This is… well, there's no way around it. It's exactly what it looks like."

Ashley was giving her a blank look.

"Ma'am, I don't know what you're talking about," she declared.

Jaina blinked.

"That's right," Tali chirped in. "We don't know what you're talking about."

Beautiful hope blossomed in Jaina's heart. Then Tali added,

"The entire ship doesn't know what you're talking about for the past month, either."

Jaina's hope crashed and burned.

"… You're kidding!" Jaina exclaimed incredulously, a clear tone of despair in her voice. "For the _past month_?!"

"Well, for the past couple of weeks at the very least," Ash said studiously, sharing a sagely look with a nodding Tali. "Frankly, I don't know what you were expecting to happen, Commander. This _is_ a small ship."

Jaina slumped down onto the bed and buried her face into her hands.

"Oh, god," she mumbled. She then looked up over her fingers at the other two women. "Were we really that obvious?"

Tali's amused voice matched her amused, glowing eyes:

"Oh, puh-lease," she lilted, "It was _painfully_ obvious every time you three were together – on the ship, on the field – _everywhere_. It was as if you'd jump into each other's suits the moment you were out of sight!"

"It was so sweet," Ash agreed, smiling. "Especially the way Liara looked at Skipper with those doe eyes, and the way the two of you did girl talk about him when his back was turned. It was such a sweet thing to see."

Jaina blinked.

"Wait, you don't have a problem with this?" she asked.

"What? No, of course not! None of us do."

"None of y… Including the entire ship's crew?"

"Yes! Shepard, they're practically rooting for you!" Ash exclaimed, raising her arms.

"… Huh?"

Both Ashley and Tali rolled their eyes.

"Shepard," Ash spoke, "don't you get it? You and Skipper are goddamn icons! You're idols to the entire crew. You're kicking ass across the entire galaxy, saving lives and ending enemies. You're like Kirk and Spock – well, sorta – and as such, banging hot alien babes is practically mandatory!"

Jaina went from flabbergasted to sheepish, self-consciously twirling a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Well… that was… definitely unexpected," she breathed. "Quite a high standard to live up to, I guess."

"Not, judging how things were when we entered," Tali quipped slyly.

Jaina huffed. She looked miffed.

"Well, now we look like idiots with all the trouble we went to pretending we're just friends," she muttered, then looked at Liara. "And what are _you_ looking so smug about for?"

Liara, who had by now donned a long white t-shirt, sat down next to her, gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, and smiled lovingly at her; it was almost a smile a mother would give to her child.

"I'm smiling because you two worry so much and care so much about your crew that you fail to realize how much your crew cares for you in turn. And it makes you all the more worthy in my eyes." Her tone then turned wry. "And frankly, I'm happy that the pretending is over; now I can tell the whole world that I'm your girlfriend."

"Talk about priorities," Jaina muttered. "Well, don't gloat too soon. Remember, us banging a hot alien babe is mandatory. So, you better watch out."

"I'll be watching out for it eagerly."

Jaina shook her head with a smile. She then turned her attention back at Ashley and Tali.

"So how did you two ended up here anyway?" she asked. "And carrying a bottle of ten year old Irish, no less?"

"Oh! Well, we felt that Liara was in a bad place, so we felt like cheering her up," Tali said.

"Yeah, so we brought some hard stuff and felt like making it a girl bonding time tonight," Ash finished, then smirked. "Looks like it wasn't really needed."

"Yeah? Well I need it. Gimme!" Jaina commanded dryly and swiped the bottle out of her hands, popping it open and taking a good swig. She huffed through the burn, then seemed to finally perk back up. "Well, waddaya all standing around for? It's girls' bonding time tonight!"

Ash and Tali shared a grin, with Ash promptly plopping her ass cross-legged down on the floor and Tali taking up a chair, the two of them doling out glasses around (with Tali having her own smaller bottle of triple-filtered turian brandy, into which she promptly struck her emergency induction port).

* * *

.

Marcus exited the elevator and walked into the ship's bay, casting his gaze around.

The sparing mats had been removed, but the bay was crowded despite that. With two Scorpion assault vehicles, two Triton mechs, omni-fabricators, and a bunch of crew busy at their work, it was a veritable anthill.

But it felt like home.

The scent of grease, weld, and machine oil, the sound of whirling servos, droning of the fabricators, hammering of metal, and shouting of men at work brought a sense of purpose. A sense of power.

He placed his palm onto the armored hand of the large Triton walker and examined the modifications they had done to them over the previous month. The original glass cockpit was replaced with armor plate and set of high-resilience cameras that fed all sorts of tactical data to the pilot, and additional weaponry was installed at the best of places, giving it a high-pounding shock vehicle value.

A sense of power indeed. Just what they'd need in the upcoming days.

He patted the walker's forearm and walked off toward the leftward Scorpion that had Garrus sitting on top of it, doing some calibrations with a terminal hooked into its systems. Kaidan was there, too, tinkering around the hover drive, while Wrex was at the side, sitting on top of some crates as he did slow, monotonous maintenance on his machine gun.

"Shepard," Wrex greeted him.

"Wrex," Marcus greeted him back. "Came to see how you guys were doing after the spar."

Wrex snorted. "It'll take more than that to take me down. Still, that little asari sure packs a punch when she's angry."

"One mean battle scream, too," Kaidan added as he got up from underneath the vehicle. "I swear, it should be weaponized as a psychological weapon. But yeah, other than that, we're all good."

Marcus chuckled, then placed his palm on the Scorpion's armor.

"So, what's the status here?" he asked Garrus.

"It's in pretty good shape," the turian replied from the roof. "Had to recalibrate the optics – nothing major; the cold and the ice particles from the blizzard shifted the targeting by point-zero-two degrees."

"And the hover systems?" he asked Kaidan.

"Able to grind living thresher maws," Kaidan replied.

Wrex chuckled. "My kind of machinery." He looked to Marcus seriously. "So, with all that's happened to Liara, we hadn't heard what news you bring from your briefing with the Council. What have you got for us?"

"I bring the good news and the great news."

That brought their attention to him.

"Really? That good?" Kaidan asked.

"So, the Council has finally listened to you," Garrus commented.

Marcus nodded, leaning back against the nearby crate.

"We've finally got through to them," he said. "Or, better yet, what they saw from Noveria did. They're scared. Real scared. Is it fear of losing their power or real concern for the galaxy? I don't really give a damn. The point is that what Benezia and the Rachni Queen revealed – what they've _seen_ for themselves on those cam recordings – has given me the opening to drive the entire Reaper background that the vision from the Eden Prime beacon has given me. It was a final nail in their coffin. It got them so scared they've officially decided to operate under the assumption that the Reaper threat is everything I told them it is. Compared to that, the rachni don't even scan."

"Sounds like pretty damn great news, alright," Wrex agreed.

Garrus hummed from his position on top of the Scorpion.

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions that quickly if I were you, though," he said as he finished his calibrations, yanking the connecting cables out and closing his laptop terminal. "The councilors are politicians. They speak one thing and do the other." He agilely slid down the Scorpion's side and landed on his feet, moving closer. "So the question isn't what they said they believe; the question is what they're going to do about it."

"Sparatus has called for a full mobilization of the Hierarchy's 10th Fleet," Shepard replied.

Garrus's mandibles lowered in surprise. "Well, color me impressed," he said as he sat back against a crate. "They're finally doing something."

"And what do we do meanwhile?" Wrex asked. "Don't tell me we're taking the back seat on this."

Marcus shook his head. "No. Right in the middle of that video conference, Valern received an emergency transmission from the STG team we had them send to Virmire. The message was garbled, but they managed to isolate emergency codes for critical danger to the Citadel and a request for sending an entire fleet. That is where the 10th is going, and they need us to lead them."

"I see," Garrus nodded. "So, it would appear that our STG friends have stumbled onto something."

"Saren's base, no doubt," Marcus said. "And it must be brimming with geth and krogan clones."

"You really think that this is the cloning facility we're facing?" Kaidan asked.

" _I_ do," Wrex stated gruffly.

Garrus nodded in agreement. "If Saren has bought as much cloning gear as Liara's sources suggest, and with the time he's had to set up the whole thing, then we're looking at three to four thousand krogan," he said grimly to Marcus. "We might be having an entire brigade on our hands. The Council sending the fleet in seems like the first wise thing they did since the beginning."

"And if they are to be successful, they need us over there beforehand; they need to know what they're facing."

"So – we do the dangerous part, while the fleet just swoops in and mops up," Kaidan said. "Figures."

"Personally, I see it as an opportunity," Marcus said. "Being a Spectre, I'd have a leeway to direct the fleet as I saw fit, especially considering that I'd be the one feeding them any actionable intel. So, no, that's not the problem; the problem is that Kirahee's STG team has been intercepted by Saren's forces. They might all be already dead, and with them any data they might have found. So, spying on Saren and the geth will be a non-issue with the Normandy present; what I actually want is to know what Kirahee found, because it's obvious he has stumbled onto something. Trying to find him would be the primary objective once we get there – or, barring that, trying to recover any intel he left behind. After Virmire cleanup is finished, we can proceed to Ilos and secure the Conduit. Hopefully, Saren will be dead by then."

Wrex nodded pensively. "Hmm… Makes sense." He then gave a measured look to Marcus. "With that attitude, the mission should be a no-brainer. So, what's got you in such a strange mood, then? I can tell there's something else on your mind."

Marcus chuckled.

"Oh, that? No, it's nothing much," he waved it off dismissively. "It's just that Ashley and Tali caught me and Jaina making out with Liara."

Kaidan did a violent spit-take, and Wrex hollered in a laughter.

"Hahahaha! So, they finally caught up on you three?"

Kaidan's head whipped to Wrex.

"W- It's true? And you knew?"

Wrex gave him a funny look. "You telling me you didn't?"

"Well… I thought… it would be wrong to, you know, assume anything," Kaidan defended. "I thought that it'd be the best to pretend that rumors are just rumors."

"Well, they aren't," Wrex stated. "He even smells of Liara," he pointed at Marcus. "All the time these days. And Jaina does too. Asari unconsciously exude their pheromones on their lovers. They're weak, but us krogan can sense them."

Garrus was chuckling. "So, someone finally caught you," he said. "And?"

"And, I left Jaina to handle it," he said diplomatically.

"Uhuh," Kaidan said. "You… you _are_ aware that the entire ship already knows of you two and Liara, are you?"

"I think it's safe to say I kinda inferred it when I saw your reaction," he said wryly. "For how long?"

"I've known it since the beginning," Wrex said. "You can't hide it from a krogan nose. But nobody heard it from me. Another man's business is another man's business."

"The crew inferred it on their own," Garrus told him. "It's the little things when you three are together. The glances, the smiles… The body talks, Shepard. You can't hide it. And you don't need to be a detective to recognize it."

Marcus looked around the cargo hold, his demeanor shifting to one of a serious commanding officer.

"And the crew's reaction?" he asked seriously as he observed the various Alliance personnel from a distance.

Kaidan chuckled. "Hah! You gotta be kidding, Shepard; every crewman knows that Captain Kirk is supposed to bang hot alien babes. This is a point of pride."

"That's the male crew," Marcus said, still serious. "What about the female part?"

"What is there to tell?" Wrex said as he cleaned the weapon on his lap. "Every single one of those kids looks at you like a father figure. Every. Single. One of them. And that includes women." He raised his eyes in amusement. "Don't tell me you haven't heard of your and Jaina's nicknames."

Marcus snorted. "Yeah, I picked it up alright." He thought on it. "To think that's what they call me when I'm, in fact, younger than some of those people."

Wrex shrugged. "So had I been when I led the tribe on Tuchanka. Being young doesn't matter. What matters is the strength of character, and you have the kind of life experience that's decades beyond theirs. I'd say that qualifies," he finished. He then smirked as he gave him a sidelong glance with one reptilian eye. "So… how does it feel conquering one more female and bringing her into your pride?"

Marcus chuckled, thinking back on the various moments of that journey fondly.

"Conquering? Not likely. The missus was the one who decided for me; I had no say in the matter."

"Ah. Marriage," Garrus said.

Gruff, coarse laughter exploded out of four throats.

"I don't think he can complain," Kaidan said to Garrus and Wrex.

"That he can't," Wrex agreed.

"Being married to a woman who not only helps in handling the ship's affairs, and kicks ass on the battlefield, but also brings other women into her husband's bed?" Garrus spoke. "Is there a club for finding women like that? Sign me right up!"

Marcus was laughing.

"He's right, you know," Wrex said. "Women like that don't grow on trees. Where the hell did you find a woman like Jaina anyway?"

Marcus smiled fondly as he reminisced, his eyes far away.

"Mindoir," he said. "I found her on Mindoir."

* * *

.

"I didn't know you were a survivor of the 2170 Mindoir raid!" Ashley said in surprise.

"Not something I like to advertise," Jaina shrugged.

The girls sat in a circle – Jaina on the bed, Liara sitting between her legs with Jaina hugging her around her waist, with the comfortably seated Ash and Tali forming the other parts of the circle.

"Whenever someone heard I was the raid survivor, they began treating me like I was a kid with special needs," Jaina continued. "The drill sergeants in the boot camp, too, but they wanted to use it as a weapon. They thought it'd have an effect on me – it was their job to weed out the weak-minded, after all – but it was merely annoying. I'd gotten over it a long time ago by then."

"Somehow, that's what I expected you'd say," Liara said with a small smile from where she sat comfily between Jaina's legs.

"I agree," Tali noted in amusement. "There are not a lot of people who talk of their experiences in that way.

"Your experiences mold you," Jaina shrugged. "Mine molded me into the woman I am today – both the good and the bad. But that doesn't mean I'm supposed to be an emo crybaby, whining about how other people don't know pain or loss. It would make me less than what I can be. Sure, losing family had hurt bad, I won't ever deny that. When it happened, I thought my world was gonna crumble. The first few weeks have been a living hell, but I've gotten over it. " She then smiled fondly, shrugging her shoulders. "Well, actually, a much more accurate way of things was that there was this young, dashing ruffian who practically forced me to pick myself up and dragged me off with him…"

"No!" Ashley exclaimed with a broad grin. " _Skipper_?!"

Jaina nodded proudly. "Yep. Marcus. He was on Mindoir at the time."

"Okay, you just gotta tell us!" Ashley gushed, and the other girls leaned in in full attention mode.

Jaina laughed and smiled broadly as she reminisced.

.

"What is there to tell?" Marcus shrugged. "I grew up on the streets of Los Angeles and fled off of that god-forsaken place the first chance I got; it was pure chance that the colony I ended up on was Mindoir."

"Ha!" Wrex barked with a toothy grin. "You're not getting yourself out of this one, Shepard. There's a good story behind it – you know, like the ones you pestered me to tell you about krogan, Ailina, genophage, me being betrayed by my father? Well, now it's our turn to pester you. Spill it!"

Marcus laughed loudly, his laughter reverberating through the cavernous cargo bay.

"I somehow expected you were gonna say that," he said, then shrugged. "Well, there's really not much to tell. I was an orphan on Earth, shuffling through the system. You know how it is – neglectful foster parents or downright abusive. You had to learn how to recognize when the old man was in such a mood to unbuckle his belt so you could make yourself scarce. Ran with street gangs a lot. Pickpocketing, thefts… there were a lot of low-level drug transfers involved. But it was the street. People you deal with in that environment would gladly stab you in the back or traffic you off. You had to keep your eyes open and keep your wits with you. Girls were even worse than the thugs. They'd seduce you, trick you to get hooked up on amberjoy, bliss, or even good ol' heroin, so you'd become some thug's bitch. Or worse, you'd go with her to a motel room for a round or two of hot lovin' and wake up in a bathtub of ice with your kidney sliced out. So yeah, I had to be very discerning about people from a very young age. Anything less, and I might not have made it."

Kaidan shook his head. "Hell… I grew up in a comparatively nice city and a nice neighborhood. I don't even want to imagine what it was like for you. How the hell do you survive the street like that? How do you find protection?"

"You do not," Marcus said. "You don't survive the streets by seeking protection, you survive by _being_ protection. You need to throw yourself into the deep end. It earns you street credit – a far more valuable thing than money. I protected the other kids whenever I could, and I did it well, and that's how I kept the vultures at bay – be it on the streets, or in the school that I was obligated to attend to by the social services." He smirked then and looked up at Garrus. "You're not about to arrest me for all the bad deeds I did, Garrus, are you?"

Garrus's mandibles fluttered in amusement.

"I think you've repaid your debt to society many times over."

Marcus snorted, then continued. "Yeah… a few good things did happen somewhere along the line too, I guess… I got into mechanics and electrics – the school that the social services made me enroll into was a local vocational technical high school, and there I realized I liked machines… They're easier to deal with than humans are, anyway. Started running with this old guy who trafficked guns, cars, and other gear about that time, too; he taught me a lot about tech work. I used that knowledge well when I fled Earth and wound up on Mindoir."

"I heard about that," Kaidan said. "You were in a Mindoir raid in 2170."

"I call it my bad luck," he replied dryly. "I got away from Earth after LA Terror in 2169 only to wind up in a slaver raid barely a year later."

"LA Terror?" Wrex asked. "What was that thing?"

"Religious fanatics took over the city of Los Angeles in a sudden and well-organized coup and went on to spread terror on the defenseless populace," Jaina said to Tali and Liara. "They held the populace hostage so the troops couldn't react. Never been there to see it, but Marcus told me stories alright. You know how batarians slavers are depicted as savage monsters?" Her face darkened. "Turns out human religious fanatics are just as bad. They killed a lot of defenseless people in the name of their religion. They wanted to cleanse the city of all who they deemed unworthy, and it just happens to have also been the people just trying to get by living the life on the streets."

"So, basically, for us, the people of the streets, it was either fight or die," Marcus said to the three men. "Guess which one I chose. Ronan, that tech trafficker I told you I worked for, had taught me how to use weapons and how to defend myself. When the shit started, he just tossed the gun into my hands; didn't even need to tell me anything. It was a three-day firefight to stay alive. Killed a lot of fanatics. Never regretted it. What the gangs did by fighting back was what gave a window of opportunity for the Alliance to take them out. That was the turning point in my life. With shit like that happening, I figured enough was enough, so I left Earth for the colonies – fresh start and all that. Minors aren't allowed to travel solo, so I did the needed works to become legally emancipated. Under Systems Alliance laws, it grants full adult rights, if you can successfully argue your case before court – which I did. With that done, and getting my high school degree by accelerated studies program, I gathered whatever cash I had and grabbed the first colony ship that went to the colonies."

"Mindoir, huh?" Garrus asked.

"The idyllic, burgeoning colony world with clear blue skies, green fields, and forests as far as the eye can see," Jaina spoke to the girls as if she was citing a dream travel add. "It was the frontier. The New Wild West. Cowboys and aliens. Life was hard, but it was _good_. The colony was alive. People were constantly coming in, freighters were constantly rolling in and out with commerce and exporting food, and I…" She slumped almost pitifully. "And I was stuck in high school."

"Aww, don't tell me you hated school?" Ash teased. "No sweet sixteen? No regular run-of-the-mill teenage girl from the colony, having her own high school problems such as: who said what, who did what, who did who, following the fashionable trends and stuff?"

"Aw, hell no, I was a wild child," Jaina retorted. "I never belonged and adamantly refused to be a part of that kind of standard social clique. But I allowed it in my school."

"Err… wait. You allowed it in _your_ school?" Tali asked.

"What does that mean?" Liara frowned.

"Th… That means that she was the school's tough guy," Ash spoke slowly, wide-eyed. "The toughest guy! The top of the food chain. The one to whom all the other kids bowed down to."

Jaina held her head up high in smug self-satisfaction.

"Okay. Yeah," Ash was nodding away. "I can totally see how that could have happened."

"Damn straight you can," Jaina quipped. "I was the high school Empress of All Things. Best grades – straight tens across the board, colonial high school champion in athletics and karate, solver of problems, protector of the weak, bully of bullies, and one mean ladies-girl, thank you very much!"

"Ladies-girl?" Tali quirked an eyebrow.

Jaina shrugged with one shoulder. "Well, don't get me wrong, I swung both ways, but it's just that – come on! A bunch of horny, pimply, hormone-stricken adolescents with too much bravado and young male ego needing to prove themselves? Pffft! No way! Besides, most of them were insecure and intimidated in the presence of strong girls, and they constantly tried to fix their inferiority complex by being hostile."

"Ugh," Ash snorted. "Men and their fragile ego."

"Exactly!" Jaina said. "I had to knock quite a few of them down a peg. As you can see, this was quite the turn-off. But girls though? They're cute, soft, and adorable. And as we all know, all girls like a strong and protective type – which was yours truly. So, the girls were attracted to me, and I happily reciprocated, of course. So, as you can see, I was the Undisputed Empress, and everybody in the city knew that! Mindoir was mine!" She then turned grumpy. "Until one day, my position gets threatened by this guy who dropped outta nowhere! Turns out he came from Earth, and some other kids met him and spread the rumor that he was way cooler than I was. And apparently he had already graduated and was legally adult despite being 16!"

"Why do I know that this is Marcus you're talking about?" Liara asked knowingly.

Jaina gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Because I am," she smirked. "Anyway, suddenly, everybody wants to meet him, and all the guys especially are affected by it, that they want to have another shot at me because it bruises their egos otherwise. And the worst thing was, he was hanging out at the spaceport! The gall!"

"Gall?" Tali asked amusedly.

"Yes! Gall!" Jaina grumbled. "Spaceport was _my_ hangout, dammit! I loved spaceships and spaceplanes. I wanted to be a pilot and a spaceship captain one day, and the spaceport was my private zone. Everybody knew it was off-limits. Yet here you have this guy setting up shop over there, and high school kids noticed him. Everything he did was rocking the boat, and I was gonna have some serious _word_ with him."

"And by _'word'_ , you mean _'kick his ass'_ ," Ashley grinned broadly.

"Naturally," Jaina shrugged. "So I immediately went down there."

"Hah! Atta girl!" Ashley cheered.

"But, why did he decide to hang out around the spaceport in the first place?" Tali asked.

"Oh, that's the best part," Jaina quipped. "He didn't decide to hang out there. He actually _worked_ there."

"That was the very first thing I did when I came out of the transport," Marcus said to the other three men. "Finding a job. The moment my feet hit the tarmac, I went straight into the hangar and asked if they needed mechanical workers – which, of course, they did because any new colony world was in dire need of, and I had the degree. With that done, I went and found a place to stay near the port. Only _then_ did I go to find something to eat. Priorities – you know how it is. In any case, things became same-old quickly enough. Work, rest, go around the colony at my spare time… It was a much more peaceful existence than LA. Until it wasn't. See, the thing is, Mindoir wasn't Earth, no matter how big the colony's capital was. People started noticing me very quickly. And that brought in all sorts of trouble."

"How come?" Kaidan asked.

Marcus shrugged. "I was a sixteen-year old who was alone. I had no legal guardian. That was a unique case on Mindoir. Cops quickly started nosing, stopping me at every corner for a 'friendly talk'. Other kids noticed me because of that, but to them I was a matter of great interest. I was legally adult, so I could live alone, work, be served at the bar – the works. They couldn't do any of that, so they wanted to hang out with me, pretend to be my friends so they could get some of that. Told them all to piss off. It made some guys angry and they wanted to teach me a lesson, so I had to kick the shit out of them. And naturally, the girls like bad boys a lot, so all my stunts only served to attracted them, and the trouble just kept on growing…"

"Hah!" Garrus laughed. "If it was any other man, I'd say it was a load of bull. So – getting all the ladies from an early age, huh?"

"Nah, not really. I could tell those girls were trouble. I could tell from a mile away they just wanted to fool around a bit with the new guy in town, and that kind of behavior reminded me of how the street girls were back in LA, so I steered clear of them. Didn't work, because apparently, the more you run, the more they chase you."

Laughter echoed around.

"It all culminated one day when, out of nowhere, there comes this crazy guy to have _'a word'_ with me – apparently, he was the top dog of the city's great high school, and my very presence was rocking the boat. He was pissed off because he had to knock some guys' heads around, because I was encroaching on his territory, because this town wasn't big enough for the two of us, because I needed to stay away from his girls…"

"Yeah, yeah, we get the picture – what happened?" Wrex interrupted.

"The age-old story happened," Marcus shrugged. "We had a confrontation which resulted in us ending up as fast friends, agreeing never to tell what happened."

Wrex narrowed his sullen eyes at the evasion. "Cute," he said dryly. "Well, can't say I never made such friends. An honored rival. He must've been something."

Marcus snorted, smiling as he reminisced fondly. "Yeah, he was something alright. Told me his name was Jay. He had a wild side about him, always rocking a mess of short red hair, baggy shirts, cargo pants and boots. He was a tempest of moods and demeanors. Calm and rational, hard to anger, but then he suddenly turns like a live warhead when something pushes him the wrong way, and then woe be to his foes. He'd be like a mix of a hound and an Irishman – wild, fiery, unyielding, and never staying down. And then, after a good fight, he'd have this upbeat, chirpy, outgoing personality that simply got to you – you know what I mean? It felt real good to hang out with him. Got me into trouble plenty of times, too… but I can't say it wasn't good times every single time… Made for some damn good memories. He was the first true friend I ever had…"

"Then, one day, he shows up at spaceport dressed as a girl."

"He _what_?" Kaidan croaked.

"Oh, no," Garrus laughed, "I know exactly where this is going!"

"Yep," Marcus nodded gravely, remembering. "It was some kind of formal school girl's uniform: short, pleated skirt, white knee-high socks, white shirt, fancy jacket, and a tie – all ruffled and looking like they were haphazardly tossed on. At this point, I have no idea just what the fuck was this all about, so I'm like:

'Jay, dude, I mean, I get that chicks dig that girly face of yours, but – come on, man! A skirt? What the fuck is going on?'

"And he says, 'Don't ask. School had this stupid ceremony and we were forced to wear these; hang on, I brought my clothes in my bag, I'll change.'

And I was like: 'Dude, what kind of a fucked-up school is that?! Crossdressers-r-us? Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going, get over here, I gotta record this for posterity! I mean check these out' – and I grab with both what I think is a pair of fake boobs and start to grope and fondle, going like – 'But damn, dude, these sure feel real! Where'd you get em? A sex shop or something? They feel goddamn awesome.'

" _ **He didn't!"**_ chorused Liara, Ashley, and Tali.

"He sure did!" Jaina quipped amusedly. "And I was so caught off guard and confused with what he's doing that I just stood there for a moment as my goodies are being felt up all over. So, I shake out of it and grab his wrists all annoyed, going like – 'Marcus! Dude! Those are my boobs, dammit! Dafuq do you mean where I got them? My mother gave them to me. You so desperate to get to second base that you actually do this…?' – and then, he freezes, and his completely shocked, wide eyes start to slowly rise to meet mine, and I finally add two-and-two together and realize that, all this time, the doofus had actually though that I was a guy, and that _only now_ had he finally realized that I'm actually a girl!"

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA," Wrex was hollering as he rolled on the floor while hammering away against the floor with his fist, and Garrus and Kaidan weren't too far behind.

"In my defense, she always wore baggy, male-styled clothes," Marcus shrugged. "Her hair was shorter back then, too. Not to mention she dated girls, and she was the school's tough guy. Come on, I grew up in LA; it was packed with gender-queer-looking weirdoes on every corner. What was a guy to think?"

"Well, yeah, that was true," Jaina replied sheepishly to a grinning Ashley's question, "but I didn't realize I was so good at being tomboy that someone from the outside couldn't tell… I mean, everybody else in the city knew me. I understood his motivations since then, though; especially later when I first saw how many gender-queer-looking people there can be in some big cities."

"Which is why my young, straight, male brain felt it was imperative for me to be certain right then and there as to Jay's nature," Marcus said. "So do what any sensible man would do: I drop her boobs, and lift the hem of her skirt and grab at her crotch."

" **NO!"** chorused the girls in shock.

"Yep!" Jaina declared proudly. "So, naturally, I clock him with my right as hard as I can – enough was enough – and I go screaming – 'I'm a girl, you nimrod! It's Jaina! Jaina O'fucking'Neal!"

"Which, obviously, means that my priorities have switched from confirming she's really a girl to dealing with an angry female," said Marcus. "Which, in Jaina's case, isn't easy by any stretch of the matter, so I try to tackle her to subdue her,"

"But I don't want to be subdued, so I kick back, but at the same time I don't actually want to injure him much,"

"Which means that it devolves into a grappling match," Marcus says. "Until I somehow manage to pin her with my body against the wall, holding one of her hands pined up too, but she's got her legs firmly wrapped around my hips and is trying to suffocate me by pressing my face into her chest of all places…"

"But the slippery bastard manages to hump and wiggle his way out of there, and burry his face into my neck… And then we hear a pointed cough."

"So we freeze and turn our heads, and – lo, behold – there's a goddamn cop standing right there in the doorway."

"And I realize how the two of us actually look in that particular position," Jaina says. "Me pinned up against the wall, my legs wrapped around his hips, me holding his head buried in my neck, him pinning my wrist against the wall, both of us panting, humping against each other, the fact that both of our clothes are half-torn off…"

"And I soooo don't need that shit right now," Marcus says. "So we instantly separate, but the damage is done. My shirt's in tatters, and hers is hanging wide open with all of its buttons torn off – I mean, here I'm thinking the things couldn't get any worse! And then she says…"

"'Dad, this isn't what it looks like!'," Jaina says.

Ashley was screeching in laughter as she rolled the floor, and the other girls weren't far behind.

Jaina continued:

"So. Yeah. At that moment I can totally feel the fight going out of Marcus and him saying farewells with his life, and I can't help but want to protect him from dad's wrath with everything I got… But instead, I see dad is smirking in that god-awful, knowing, dad way, and goes like – 'Not what it looks like? Suuuuuuuure!'"

"Let tell you something," Marcus says, "Being in that kind of situation, and realizing that the girl's dad has a sense of humor is the best feeling a teenage boy can have. So, the man goes – 'Ms. Crabapple called me to tell me that you snuck out of the School Day celebration. Might have known you'd end up here.' – And then he looks to me, smirking, and says – 'So, you must be Marcus! Carson O'Neal. Jaina here has been going on nonstop about you for this past month. Which is goddamn impressive, I gotta say! There was not a single boy on the planet that she hadn't thoroughly torn to bits and scared away. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love that my little girl can take care of herself, but I was becoming afraid that she was gonna remain alone her entire life. So you imagine how happy I was to know there was a guy she talked all day about. And I have to admit, I'm pretty damn glad to see a man that can handle her. Why don't you join us for lunch this Saturday? The missus is making lamb. We'd both be very happy to have you."

"And so, our short mishap ended," Jaina said. "We made awkward peace, he came to lunch the next day, and the awkward peace returned to being more akin to our usual bickering, only a bit more embarrassing. We were forced to divulge our story to the family. My sister, Lira, who was senior year, immediately spread it around town, so it resulted in me having to knock a few heads around just on principle…" She paused and smiled fondly. "And Marcus and I became and stayed thick as thieves from then on out."

"What? No romance?" Ashley whined petulantly.

"No, it wasn't on either of our minds back then; it would have been too awkward," Marcus said to the three guys who had, by then, recovered their breathing. "Don't get me wrong; even then, I was damn well aware that, once you took away the tomboyishness, she was quite beautiful. But while I cared about her more than anyone in the universe, we had been buddies first, so it'd have been just weird if we tried it. And we both kinda knew it."

"But the times we had were still good," Jaina spoke to the girls. "Better than good! The times were a blast! I don't think I've had anyone who was like Marcus in my life. With him, the world felt right." She paused, and her face turned somber. "And then, that day came…"

"I was at work when the sirens went off," Marcus spoke grimly. "It happened so damn fast that it was staggering. The planetary militia garrison, the police, and the few GARDIANS were all taken out by orbital precision bombing, after which the dropships came blazing in. Batarian-led slaver gangs were dropping all over the colony." He paused. "And I remember it as clear as day: at that very moment, the only thing that I could think of was Jaina. That's the only thing that mattered.

"The spaceport was a high-profile target, so the slavers came there first en masse. Many people died. Many, many more were taken. But I was a street rat. I had learned how to how to hide and prowl so that the trained police squad couldn't notice you when they did a raid, so I knew how to stay unnoticed by a few mere slavers. I waited for a small group to be separated from the main body, and that's when I struck. The workshop had plenty of bladed tools; It was easy to get the drop on the first batarian. The second and third one died from my biotics. Not that I was any strong with them – I didn't even have an amp – but my days of pickpocketing had made me develop super-fine control of them. Lifting a credit chit was no different than snapping an aorta. I did take their weapons, but I never tried anything as stupid as trying to defend an entire spaceport; that was folly. Instead, I rushed for the parking lot and killed the batarians that were too busy capturing the people who were trying to flee with their cars to notice me in time. Then, I jacked a skycar and burned rubber **[1]** toward Jaina's home."

"I was home, in the fields," Jaina spoke. "My family was an atypical thing; dad was a cop, but he was also a rancher thanks to automatons and robotics doing the menial work at home, and it was run by mom while he was away, uhhh… Yeah, anyway… Anyway… I saw the batarian shuttle landing next to our home. There were many gunshots. My dad and brother, they had guns, but… well… there were two of them, and twelve of the batarians. _Seven_ by the end of it, heh… The remaining batarians were _mad_. They wanted to have some fun with my mother and big sister before they chipped them. Four of them were dragging them out, while the remaining three were advancing on me as I ran in from the fields, thinking they'd overpower me easily. It didn't go as they planned… I was a biotic, I owned a biotic amp – courtesy from the planet's healthcare system – and I was _**blind**_ with rage.

"To this day, I still don't know what kind of an attack I used to cave that first batarian's chest in and launch him ten meters across. I must've used a warp of some kind on the second one, tearing him in half, and I've grabbed the last one in a biotic field to use as a living shield…"

"…That's not something you learn by being a school bully," Ashley said softly.

"No," Jaina smiled. "They teach you that at the spaceport."

"Hah," Ash coughed. "Hell yeah."

"So, there I was," Jaina continued, "holding that final batarian with a biotic field so that the others couldn't shoot me – though the morons tried to, and killed their own man – and when they saw they couldn't fight me and hold the prisoners too, they tried using my mom and sis as hostages to force me to surrender. My mom had other plans, though. She wrestled away the pistol that was held to her head and tried to fight back; she always was a lioness. Batarians had shielding, though, and there were more of them. They reacted and killed her. Lira, my sister, tried reaching for mom's body, but one of the batarians reacted on impulse and shot her dead on the spot.

"I went berserk, then. I flunked that dead batarian's body away and assaulted the remaining four. But, I was already tiring from biotic overuse, and there were too many of them. I remember a strike to the gut from the butt of the batarian's rifle, and falling on my knees. He grabbed my hair, holding me while the others stepped forth. He wanted me dead, but this other guy stopped him and took out a control implant. They were gonna implant me right then and there, without anesthesia. I was _this_ close to becoming a slave."

The other girls were leaning close, holding their breaths, watching her in wide-eyed suspense. Jaina just smiled at their reactions and continued:

"But then, the batarian that was coming at me with the control chip grunted and simply fell down to the ground – dead from his aorta being biotically ripped! Before any of the remaining batarians knew what was going on, their leader was flying through the air in the shower of blood, courtesy of a point-blank shotgun blast from inside his shield layer. The remaining two were staggered away from me with a biotic push, there was another shot, and another… and, it was over. I looked up to see my rescuer, and there he was."

"Marcus," Liara said quietly.

"In the flesh," Jaina said, her smile broad. "Holding a smoking shotgun and a pistol hooked through his belt, and was sprayed with batarian blood."

"Wow," Ash murmured. "He must've already loved you when he went through all that trouble and risking his own neck to save you out of all others."

"Well, Marcus and I weren't there quite yet," Jaina said. "Oh, there was this cute, awkward something right underneath the surface, but neither of us wanted to act on; it was because we had been buddies first, and we were both silently afraid to change it. But in the six months since we met, we had definitely become tied at the hip. It was a sense of companionship that you can't really replace."

There was a collective 'aww'.

"That's so sweet," Tali said. "You must've developed feelings for him right after he rescued you, haven't you?"

"I developed feelings, alright," Jaina said. "I hated him for a month!"

"WHAT?!" was a collective exclaim.

Jaina grinned almost sheepishly, and then sighed.

"After he rescued me, I broke down. My whole family was dead. I remember going down to my mother's and sister's bodies, trying to cradle both of them in my arms as I cried. Marcus didn't want to waste time, though. He was, understandably, more level-headed at that moment, and knew that more batarians were inbound. So, he grabbed me by the bicep, pulling me up with him, explaining that we had to go. I didn't want to hear it. I punched back at him, called him names, telling him he could go to hell for all I cared but that I was staying there with my family."

"You didn't!" Liara said accusingly.

"I sure did," Jaina said, shrugging. "I wasn't quite right in the head at the moment."

"So, how did he react?" Ashley asked.

"He listened to my tirade for a few seconds, and then he backhanded me across the face for all he was worth."

" _ **He didn't!**_ " the girls chorused.

"He sure did!" Jaina deadpanned. "He struck me so hard that I got reacquainted with the ground. I swear the left side of my face was numb for a whole day after that."

"Is that why you hated him?" Tali asked.

"No, it wasn't that," she said. "I am actually forever grateful that he did what he did back then. For all the humiliation I felt at that moment, I was not myself. I was lost. I needed someone to take the reins and lead me through the paces, which is exactly what Marcus did. He took care of me."

"So, what happened to make you hate him?" Liara asked.

Jaina sighed, thinking back on things…

"It was because, after the raid was defeated, and the Alliance stepped in, there were many orphans out there, and Jaina was one of them now," Marcus spoke grimly. He shook his head. "I've been there. I've lived through it. And there was no goddamn way I was gonna allow her to go through the hell of being thrown into the social care system. She was in a bad place as it was. I could see it in her – she was a wreck, an immense, crippling grief slowly eating her up from the inside. It was pushing her into a stupor, and I didn't want to lose my friend to it. But my hands were tied. She was a minor, and the social services had all the power over her, and I didn't qualify as a caretaker. So, that meant that there was only one way for her to drag herself out of it."

"He pushed for me to go through the legal work of becoming emancipated, like he was," Jaina said, "to start working so that it would take my mind off the pain, and to leave the planet with him so that I'm not reminded of my loss… Essentially, he wanted me to become the master of my own destiny. And it was this pushing, this constant pushing to act at a time when I only wanted to curl into a ball and die of grief that angered me. He wanted to help in the best way that he felt he could, and it angered me _so_ much."

"So, lemme get this straight," Ash said as she downed a glass of whiskey, wagging the empty glass at Jaina. "Skipper pimp-slapped you for your own good, and then he started pushing you to become a strong and independent self-made woman?! Unforgivable! It's obviously all his fault from where I'm standing."

The women burst into a fit of laughter.

"Well, it did seemed so to the little ol' teenage me," Jaina said as the giggles subsided, and then sighed. "The thing was, Marcus wanted us to go away from Mindoir, to start over, but I didn't want to go. I had grown up on Mindoir, and leaving felt like I would be abandoning my family's spirit. So… he blackmailed me."

Everyone's eyebrows shot up.

"With what?" Liara asked incredulously.

Jaina shrugged, a small, wispy smile on her lips. "He said that he'll go off without me." She sighed. "I couldn't take another loss, and he knew it. For better or for worse, in the six months that I've known him, Marcus had become my pillar, even before the raid. So, I did what he asked, and hated myself for being so weak-willed that I had to follow him, and especially because I knew from the start that he was right. And, since I hated myself because he was right, it was obvious that it was his fault. So, I hated him."

There was another fit of chuckles and giggles.

"But you did leave the planet with him," Ash said.

"Yeah, we did," Jaina agreed.

"Where to?" Tali asked.

"Well, Marcus had struck a deal with one of the freighter captains that came to Mindoir to bring in relief supplies for the two of us to become members of that ship's crew – the MSV Grenada," she said. "The whole process of me becoming legally emancipated was pretty quick, so we boarded Captain Haralson's ship and started working there. We've spent the next two years as freighter crewmembers, learning the ropes, earning money – that sort of thing… and I've spent the first month of it hating Marcus's guts. My grief often manifested as anger, and I often tried being confrontational, venting my temper on him. But he wouldn't be phased by it. He was stoic. He… he had this way of handling me… Whenever I tried fighting him, he'd end it by holding me firmly pinned and thrashing and screaming against him until I vented my wrath and was left a sobbing wreck. And then he'd hold me for a while. At first, I hated him for it. It conflicted with my badass high school persona. But I couldn't deny how good it felt to vent and then be held by someone.

"And ultimately, he was right all along. Time and constant work on that ship had healed me. And I had realized what a bitch I had been toward him and how great he had been toward me." She chuckled. "I gotta say that the rest of the crew was quite happy when I apologized – both to him and to them. I knew I had been a bother, but the crew had been good people; they knew my history, and had been understanding, so it all worked out. And from then on, I worked extra hard to make up for everything I did. The crew had accepted us, and we started going out whenever we hit port. I became more outgoing…" She smiled. "Captain Haralson's wife, who was also a crewmember, took me under her wing. After losing one bet against her, I had to consign to her dolling me up for our next shore leave. It was only a bit of light makeup and feminine clothes, but, uhh… that day when we all went out, Marcus kept looking at me all day long. I liked it. It was the first time that I started wanting to be more feminine, and Vanessa was more than eager to teach me how."

"You wanted to do it for Marcus," Liara said discerningly. "You started liking it because you could see he liked it."

Jaina nodded, smiling. "Yeah. I did. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was starting to become really attracted to him. But I was still afraid to ruin what we already had. Which was why instead, I relegated to teasing him. Which was why the sexual tension started mounting between us."

"She was a goddamn tease!" Marcus grumbled to the guys as he reminisced. "She started dolling up with a tiny bit of light makeup, and it looked damn good on her, but it started to evolve into showing just the right amount of skin, of wearing different clothes – and she was doing it all on purpose to tease me. All the time. Couple that with her old nature resurging back, an insatiable zest for life, and a growing confidence in herself, and you get the most attractive type of woman in the whole goddamn universe!"

"And, truth be told," Jaina spoke to the girls, "I wanted him to be my first, just not quite yet. I enjoyed teasing him, but I was also using it to see whether he was merely a horny teenager or if he had more self-control. And he passed with flying colors."

"Sooo…" Ashley mused out loud.

"Sooo…" Tali joined in after her.

Jaina just grinned at them, biting her lip and glancing at Liara, who was arching a stern eyebrow at her expectantly.

"Okay, okay," she relented. "By then, we had spent two years on the Grenada. We were 18, and by then I had realized by then what I wanted to do with my life. The raid of Mindoir had left a strong impression on me, and a desire to make a difference resonated strongly within me. I knew that the best path to do it was to join the Alliance, and that meant that Marcus and I would be separated – at least for a while. So, I felt that it was time. I wanted to do it with Marcus; god knows I've teased him enough about it. So, I talked it over with him, gave him an offer with a few rules of conduct, and uh… well… he said no."

"What?!" Ash whined.

"I don't do conditions," Marcus explained to the guys in firm voice. "Never did, never will. And then I promised her: I promised her that, some day, she was going to be mine – completely and utterly, with no conditions at all – and that she was going to like it."

"So," Jaina spoke, "I agreed. I told him that if such time ever came, I would surrender completely and utterly. But I was a stubborn, tough, independent cookie, remember? I told him outright that it was not gonna happen in a million years."

"It was a challenge that I couldn't back down from," Marcus said.

"So, the next thing you see is him enlisting with me," Jaina said. "Ever since then, the two of us have been blazing a fiery trail through the Alliance, steadily breaking all the records ever made on our way to the top and performing achievements to put all others to shame – our own silent competition against each other. The statement of who would be the dominant one."

"Neither of us could make a solid lead," Marcus said. "We were always switching in the top spot by achievements. That's how we went through the boot camp, through the Officer School, and through our service time."

"And all the while, the sexual tension between us kept mounting," Jaina spoke. "We dated other people to scratch the itch, but it was never enough – you know? Everyone paled in comparison."

"Well, how the hell did you two finally hook up?!" Ashley whined. "Come on, Commander, don't keep us in the dark!"

Jaina smirked impishly. "Well, it was simple, really: he won me in a poker game."

Silence.

"You're kidding," Garrus said to Marcus, slack-mandibled.

Marcus shook his head. "Nope. Dead serious."

" _ **How?**_ "

"It was a poker game that occurred during a scheduled 15-day leave," Marcus spoke. "We had met up with a few friends that we made over the years – most of them were Jaina's civilian friends; she had always been outgoing, and the army life only enhanced it, so when she let her hair down, she tended to become the center of attention, and to lead the entire social circle she was in. In comparison, I was there with only a couple of my good army buddies. The three of us liked playing friendly poker, and Jaina and her friends were really eager to join in – and I could tell it was just another facet of 'her-versus-me'. But I was okay with it. So, that night we set up a game once more – Texas hold 'em. The game started out as usual, then morphed into an unofficial guys-against-girls. By the peak of the evening, as I suspected, it had evolved into me against Jaina, with only the two of us left in that round. She was a great player. Good bluffer. We enjoyed the game a lot. But she ended up losing the clothes off her back – literally! She was a graceful loser, though."

Jaina shrugged. "It was all good, really," she said. "I was never ashamed of my body, and I liked to flash my boobs to people to mess with them, so there was almost nobody on that table who hadn't seen my tits before. So, during that game, I pawned my clothes, and lost to Marcus, and since I was a good sport, I had agreed to be the naked cocktail waitress for the rest of the evening as the rest continued playing. Besides, it was a good opportunity, and I had real fun yanking his chain and teasing him – between serving drinks, I sat exclusively in his lap! I enjoyed watching him work hard to hold his steely composure as I perched there, close to him, him trying his damnedest to look all cool and casual about it as he kept playing the new rounds, appearing to be in total control. But I knew he was boiling inside, and he kept checking me out boldly, and I was liking it a lot. It was sexy as hell, and it was pushing all the right buttons with me."

"By that time, the night was mostly winding down," Marcus spoke. "I was mostly tossing in chips and losing to keep the night going and keep her naked ass on my lap longer, and the little minx knew what I was doing! She was smiling at me knowingly." He sighed, shaking his head. Then his face turned dark. "It was all fun until Veronica, one of Jaina's friends, who didn't have any more chips, but was likely emboldened by Jaina's carefree, brazen behavior, decided to bet in her pussy into the pot as a means to try to wiggle more money out of her boyfriend, Glen, who was also present at the table and playing the game."

"Marcus didn't like that," Jaina said. "Not one bit. He considered it the lowest of lows – what Veronica was doing was basically selling her pussy to her boyfriend of all people. And Marcus hated the hypocrisy of it to the core. He considered it no different than being a cheap hooker. So he wanted to stomp mercilessly on that kind of behavior and teach her a harsh lesson: he was going to win that pot she had so carelessly and thoughtlessly thrown her pussy into and fuck her that night. And he bit down like a pit bull.

"So now, everyone at the table starts to freak out. But Marcus – well, you know him – one glare was enough to silence them all. Veronica starts to freak out, her boyfriend is thoroughly cowed, and I just want to avert a disaster. So… I give him the offer: I buyout Veronica's debt. I take her place. And he dude actually says no! He knows that there would be conditions, and he refuses that. And that right there – him staying adamant to his old promise to me that he would have me with no holds barred – is what I find so _insanely sexy_. I mean, I've been high-strung, hot and bothered this whole night, and everything about him is so fucking sexy that I think – to hell with it – and go like:

"Okay. Then, I'll be your sex slave for a week."

"No!" Ash exclaimed.

"Yes!" Jaina grinned impishly. "Oh, you should have seen the look on everyone's face! But the best one was Marcus's. He was _hungry_. He wanted to devour me. I loved it! And to emphasize it further, I say: 'sex slave – no conditions'. I swear, I've never seen anyone pile in their winnings so quickly. He marshaled my naked ass into the skycar, and then sped down to his rented seaside bungalow. And from that night on…" Jaina bit her lip, closed her eyes, and crooned. "It was seven days of hot, hot, _**hot**_ bliss that opened both of our eyes to each other. Seven days. And we married on the eighth."

"Awww, Commander!" Ashley pouted. "Not fair! You're supposed to share all the dirty, juicy details of everything that happened!"

"Ahah," Jaina chuckled huskily. "Well, Ash… let's just say that if I were to tell you about all the things we did – all the dirty, juicy little details of all the depraved sexy stuff we did, well… then, we'd be here a very, _very_ long time. And I don't think the Normandy's heat sinks would be able to compensate for the rise in the room's temperature."

"You're so mean!" Tali whined cutely as she squirmed in her seat.

"Tell you what. I'll tell you all about it another time," Jaina promised. "All the details. Scout's honor."

"So, now we have to stew in our own juices?" Liara complained.

"Not necessarily, we can pursue other topics tonight," Jaina said easily. "For example, we can have Ash talk in detail about her and Kaidan."

Ash suddenly froze. Three pairs of eyes turned knowingly toward her, and she gulped.

"Umm… Commander?" she tried innocently.

"'Commander' nothing!" Jaina commanded jokingly. "We've all seen how you two look at each other! There are sparks flying all over the place when you're together."

"True!" both Tali and Liara chorused.

"Oh, boy…" Kaidan sighed uncomfortably as he was confronted. "Look, Commander, nothing major had happened between Ash and I…"

"Except you two kissing whenever you think nobody can see," Wrex stated with an evil krogan grin.

Kaidan gave him a stink eye. "What I'm trying to say is that we weren't trying to get away with it! It just happened. We… we just wanted to be discreet, you know – so that it does not appear to someone from the outside like this ship is turning into a pleasure yacht, and…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, it's alright," Marcus interrupted. "I'm fine with it. This mission to hunt Saren is tough as it is. Unconventional mission, done beyond Alliance's standards and supervision, prolonged stealth operation behind enemy lines, continuous chase with little to no rest, and nobody to rely on but each other. Crew fooling around discretely? Of course I can turn a blind eye to it. I'd be crazy not to. So, as long as you and Ash remain casually discreet, everything is perfectly fine."

Ashley breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Commander," she said to Jaina.

Jaina nodded solemnly. "You're perfectly welcome, Chief." Then, a mischievous twinkle appeared in her eye, along with the other two females present. "So, now, we want details. Spill it!"

Separated halfway, across the ship, two voices, male and female, spoke as one in defeat:

" **Oh, boy…** "

* * *

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 **[1]** The term "burning rubber" during car chases should remain firmly rooted in the English language since there shouldn't have been any true skycars until the mid-22nd century.

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 _ **A.N:** I'll fix any spelling or grammar mistakes some other time. Now, i_ _f you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go start preparing the next chapter. Virmire, I think. I can't remember, it's been a year since I wrote it (like I said, this chapter was the block). On another note, I've been also recently considering to do a parallel release of this story on AO3 as well._

 _But, in the meantime, I'll buckle up and await your reviews and PMs…_

… _Aaaany day now…_


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